Mr. Gerry Hone:

We deal with all referrals in respect of separated children coming into the country. We spoke earlier about how more than 800 children have been accommodated in the past year. So far this year, there have been 325 referrals involving separated children. Also, 554 children in care have been accommodated so far this year. That is a 33% increase on last year. The children who come into the State in these circumstances - and I commend the work of our separated children team - have come from very traumatic backgrounds. In view of the experiences they have had in their countries of origin and having had to travel halfway around the world to get here, they do not trust State authorities to start with. As a result, when we intervene, there is a lack of trust. You have to build relationships in an environment in which language is a problem a lot of the time and in which trust is a problem. We do age assessments of all the young people who come in. If we are in doubt, we err on the side of caution. We treat the young person as a child if there is any doubt at all and we provide services accordingly. That puts pressure on our services, but people speak very positively about working with this cohort of young people. Those involved in that part of the service enjoy their work and make tremendous interventions.