Mr. Francis Chance:

I thank the Senator for her question. When you are looking at the current environment in terms of policy, the problem is getting from paper policy into action on the ground. As the chair of a drug task force, I am sure the Senator knows that. I know well the situation in Tallaght and the work of the Tallaght drug task force, and that work is replicated around the country.

It is very hard to pick three things because the needs of children and families are multi-factorial. They need integrated strategies across a range of Government environments. I am going to pick three policy areas, which I think are urgent. The first one is the national children's policy. Our current national children's policy, although I should not say current because it is expired, Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures finished at the end of last year. We are currently without a national children's policy, and that is somewhat disturbing. At the same time, I would like to acknowledge the work that has commenced in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on the development of a new national children's policy, but it could well be towards the end of next year before we see that.

It is very important that we put the children with the greatest need and the prevention of need at the centre of that policy. Before we ever had a pandemic, we had child poverty and child inequality, and it has gotten worse. It has gotten worse for the children who were already in the worst position. Therefore, we need to look at the policy and the implementation and at funding in those areas.

The second area would be in relation to Sláintecare. Sláintecare is a really important policy in moving our health service from crisis to prevention. The very first recommendation in Sláintecare is about child health; it is the first thing you come to when you read the Sláintecare report. Yet, it seems Sláintecare is in some crisis at the moment, and we are concerned that the focus is on institutional reform and structural reform, as opposed to direct service delivery reform. We know that due to the pandemic a significant number of children have not been screened for health and development, and we really need to catch up on that, recommence those services immediately and make sure every child who missed his or her screening during the pandemic receives that screening now.

The final point I will talk about is in the area of the First 5 whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families. If we are serious about dealing with the long-term problems of children and their families, we need to start in pregnancy, or even before pregnancy, moving to early childhood. We have a very good roadmap for that in First 5, but we need to invest in the implementation of that. I would point, in particular, to the national model on parenting supports, which we have been privileged to work on with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and which is nearly ready for launching. We need to look at a national strategy where every parent is provided with support in their parenting work, which is the most important work in society. Those families that need extra support should get it, but we should also provide universal supports to each and every parent to every child born in Ireland.