Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

In 1999, the Children First child protection guidelines were announced and put in place. These are non-statutory guidelines designed to ensure a uniform approach is taken to dealing with the problems of children at risk and investigation of reports of children at risk. At the end of July, the Office of the Minister for Children published a review which confirmed that our child protection services are totally dysfunctional and the guidelines are not being uniformly applied.

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