Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I want to address the same theme as previously raised, in the context of promised legislation. This Government has essentially been castrating the House as a legislative Assembly. It seems intent on undermining our constitutional duty to hold the Government to account. In the context of that, will the Minister say when will the adoption Bill, which has been promised for eight years and is part of the legislative programme, be published?

When will we have the child care Bill, which has been promised to provide a new statutory scheme for children with special needs who require special orders in the High Court? That forms part of the current promised legislative programme.

When will we have the following promised four items, which were to come before this House for debate? The first is the report of the national review committee on the "Children First" guidelines, designed to ensure that children at risk are being properly protected. Second is the report into the reason for the delay, from 1999 until November 2007, in the completion of the report on abuse of intellectually disabled children in Brothers of Charity institutions. There is an investigation into why it took eight years to produce that report. This House was promised that by 8 July, the report would be completed, and published. It has not been made available.

Third is a report of the independent inquiry to examine the full circumstances of the tragic deaths of the Dunne family in Monageer, County Wexford. That report was to be completed by 7 July. Finally, there is a report into the development of the national children's information system. In this House we established that there is no up to date information with regard to the child protection duties being undertaken by the HSE. There is a report designed to ensure that it produces its information on time.

We were promised by the Minister of State with responsibility for children that we would see the HSE report before this House on the child protection services, just covering the years 2006 and 2007. We are now in the middle of 2008 and we do not know how well the child protection services functioned in 2006. It is a disgrace. Will the Minister tell us when we will have those two items of legislation, when the reports will be laid before the House and the reason for the delay in providing all of them?

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