Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Those are excellent questions. Deputy Rabbitte was right when she stated that the concerns I referenced were expressed already by the young people themselves. Issues concerning child protection and the sharing of information, especially between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána, are critical. We discussed some of those issues today at Cabinet as a number are covered in the legislative change required in the context of Brexit. At the same time, we fully intend that type of information sharing to continue, both in the context of the practices and protocols that have developed as well as in any legislative changes required. Those issues, therefore, are being dealt with very explicitly.

In the context of the legislative framework, sharing of information continues as well from the perspective of the child’s best interest, the public interest and on the legal basis of the Children First Act 2015 and the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. That is just to begin to answer Deputy Rabbitte’s first question. Turning to the Deputy's second question, there have been regular conversations, to which I have contributed, at Cabinet with the other Ministers concerned with these issues.

Complementing that, and perhaps more in terms of the detail to which the Deputy is referring, all of the Secretaries General have been meeting on a regular basis during the past six months in order to tease out some of the detail of some of these other issues. Ms Fisher will add to my remarks.