Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

This is a particularly disturbing aspect of child care for everyone concerned. While it is welcome that the numbers have fallen, the idea that young children can go missing at all is highly worrying. The Minister of State spoke of inspection but in the case of young children, the issue does not pertain to physical inspections as much as to the care system and whether such children are watched and cared for on a 24-hour basis as one would expect. Moreover, the Minister of State stated that younger children are being moved to homes, foster homes and so on. What is the cut-off age in this regard?

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