Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Children and Youth Affairs
Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed)
4:50 pm
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The subsections referred to by the Minister do not suggest that they will do what she claims or believes. Section 56(13) states:
Section 56(15) states:
The Minister may prescribe requirements in respect of--(a) the expenditure incurred by the Agency in the provision of services by service providers, and
(b) the provision of those services by service providers".
In this section “service provider” means a person involved in the provision of child and family services otherwise than for profit, which services, in the opinion of the Agency, are services that are similar to activities carried out by the Agency and consistent with its functions.The functions are as I have referenced in the context of other sections and none alludes to the subsections which refer to the functions of the agency. If I had been blessed with the same opportunity to read between the lines, like the Minister or others, I would have known at the beginning that the best interests and views of the child were implied but I was not.