Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I refer to a matter which the Minister signalled in his address, the committee on children. The situation seems to move and change not only by the day but by the hour. I have kept abreast of the feedback at Whips' meetings and yet today we learn the Government proposes an entirely new committee regarding children from that signalled in the missive circulated at a previous Whips' meeting. It is proposed to have a committee on the constitutional amendment regarding children quite separate from the committee the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, is involved in arranging. I have no problem with that but the Minister must accept that the drip drip approach is not a good way to do business. This makes it very difficult for parties to plan and in our case how we will divide our time and attention when there will clearly be a much greater number of opportunities arising from these committees. I welcome the subtext of the Chief Whip's announcement, that the committee on children, which had been signalled earlier, will be a substantive committee rather than a stand-alone address of the proposal to amend the Constitution. This is in line with an argument I presented to the Taoiseach yesterday. I further argued for a specific Question Time for the Minister of State with responsibility for children, independent of questions to the Minister for Health and Children where matters pertaining to children are rarely addressed, given the extent of concern and the import of all health issues currently.

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