Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Many people listening to Deputy Barry Andrews this morning would have had a lot of sympathy for the position in which he found himself, as a new Minister of State, having to trot out the same old excuses. The issue which must be addressed is why he was in that situation and why the same old excuses had to be trotted out.

Let us have some plain speaking on this matter. When the Taoiseach says that there are 20,000 referrals a year and more than 700 social workers, is he telling this House that the social workers are swinging the lead? Is that what he is saying? What does he mean?

We now have a number of reports which tell us that there are serious delays in cases being dealt with and children are being put at risk. Not so long ago, there was a case involving a mother and her two children who died in County Wexford and one of the stories attached to that tragedy was that an out-of-hours service was not available. The people who are working on the front line, including gardaí, teachers, and doctors, and coming across at-risk children and difficulties in families need to know what to do. Following last night's television programme and the reports we have seen, we now have a picture of a service that is not delivering. A referral can be made and even if it is a priority referral, it still may not be dealt with. The Taoiseach is implying that the problem is the social workers. He should clarify his comments and tell us what steps will be taken by the Office of the Minister for Children, the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews and the Government to ensure that an adequate service is made available so that we are not back here, at some stage, discussing a catastrophe involving a child or group of children.

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