Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

There is a scandalous situation applying to child protection and family support services within the State, as revealed in an article in The Irish Examiner last week, in which internal HSE documents were published citing a litany of inadequate supports, including a situation in which children could have been at risk. The issue of children at risk is one of the most serious and one with which we should be concerned today. I refer not only to the historic situation but the current situation. Will the Government bring forward the Child Care Bill and progress the content of the Bill and the serious deficiencies in the current arrangements?

On a second matter, we have now signalled significant cuts in respect of Bus Éireann and Bus Átha Cliath fleet and staff numbers with some 320 redundancies in the coming weeks-----

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