Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State has failed to answer the questions I asked. Will he confirm that he does not know on 31 March 2009 how many children were taken into care at the end of December 2007? Will he confirm that he does not know how many children reported to be at risk have not had their cases investigated? If the report for 2007 has not been published, even though it is required by the Child Care Act 1991 to be published with a degree of promptness, when will the report for 2008 be published?

I am told there are hundreds of cases involving reports of children at risk across the country, within 32 child care regions under the supervision of the HSE, whose files are sitting on shelves and are unallocated to social workers for proper family investigation. Does the Minister of State know this? Does he agree that since the formation of the HSE, it has been incapable of collating up-to-date information on the workings of the child protection service, for which it has statutory responsibility?

Will the Minister of State with responsibility for children confirm that he has no idea about the current position regarding the efficiency or otherwise of the workings of our child protection system? He has no up-to-date information on which he can rely.

See this speech in context