Dr. Niall Muldoon:

Yes, we are in ongoing negotiations with the Department of children on how we move forward on these.

The priorities we have at the moment are areas in which we felt there was a gap where we were not providing the service we would like to provide. One of them was in Oberstown where children are detained. Many of the children are kept until they are 18 and a half years of age. We essentially want to extend our remit to 18 and a half years for the children there because it does not make sense to go to an adult ombudsman for that six-month period of time.

Second, we found that more and more children are staying in school after 18 years of age. Again, we felt it would be appropriate for us to take complaints while they are still in secondary school. There may be a situation. We will have to figure that out because in theory, the Ombudsman should take them on once they are 18. There may be a little bit of duality there but we have to figure that piece out with the Ombudsman. He is okay with the idea. It makes sense that most children would think to come to us first. We will just have to figure that one out.

The third issue was aftercare. We want to match whatever the age is in the aftercare legislation, so we do not have to change it. If we change the aftercare age later on, we would want to have sight of those children until they are out of aftercare as well. Therefore, we are working with them around those areas at the moment.