Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I welcome these statements and the continuing focus of the House on the issue of child welfare and protection. We recently addressed the third and final report of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children and I again call on the Government to table legislation to hold a referendum on the issue of children's rights as a matter of urgency. While anxious that the referendum is proceeded with in the current year, a range of measures and services need to be improved or put in place now in order that children can be properly protected and can have their rights vindicated.

The failures of the past are becoming well documented. Only last week, we had the publication of the HSE's summary reports on the deaths of two teenagers in State care - Tracy Fay, who was 18 years, and David Foley aged 17, both of whom died from drug overdoses. The reports found the HSE had failed adequately to address their care, protection and accommodation needs. They exposed tragic systemic failures. The care of Tracy Fay is described as "wholly inadequate". During her first six months in care, she was accommodated in nine different places. Eight years ago, her body was discovered in a disused coal bunker but official Ireland is only now acknowledging how it failed this child.

The report on David Foley shows that an incredible 32 agencies were in some way responsible for him, although he did not avail of all their services. He was accessing out-of-hour services and hotels for almost two years before he was received into voluntary care. I acknowledge that the Minister of State has apologised for the delay in publishing the reports. However, the reports are inadequate in terms of detail and there is an absence of transparency and accountability. We need the publication in full of all reports on the deaths of children in State care. I urge the Minister of State to note this and to respond at the appropriate time. He stated:

Every exposure of failures in our children's services identified by HIQA, State inquires or the media must lead to action and improvement on the part of Government and statutory agencies. It is the HSE's statutory responsibility to deliver children's services. It is my political responsibility to ensure that appropriate services are delivered.

I do not doubt his sincerity in that commitment; the contrary is my view. We can only hope that he is supported by his Cabinet colleagues and that the political will and the necessary resources will be forthcoming to fulfil the commitment.

The systematic failures that still allow children to be victimised or neglected today need to be addressed. Only last year the Ballydowd centre in west Dublin was closed after a damning report by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. The closure raised major concern over child services in this State. The centre was in existence for only nine years and it cost €13 million to put in place, yet it had to be closed because of its unsuitability for the troubled children for whom it catered. The HSE presided over a facility in which, as HIQA stated, there were "not enough staff to run the unit consistently and safely". The HIQA national children in care inspection report, which included the report on Ballydowd, is a severe indictment of State failure to protect children. It highlights "serious deficits in standards aimed at safeguarding vulnerable children, including lapses in vetting procedures for staff and foster carers working with children". These are issues that I, along with others, have repeatedly raised in questions to the Minister for Health and Children and at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children.

I reiterate what I have said on several occasions in this Dáil and in committee. Our child protection services are still woefully inadequate. There are insufficient social workers and other front line workers and support systems. Children are in grave danger but the services are not in place to make the interventions required. The nightmare is happening every day. Most of this abuse takes place in the family home and this cannot be stated often enough. If the services are not put in place then the State will be just as culpable as it was in the past when it conspired with the church to cover up the abuse of children.

The Minister for Health and Children, who has ultimate responsibility, and the Minister of State, who has direct responsibility for children, must act with urgency to bring the care of vulnerable children up to acceptable standard or else we will have more Ryan reports in years to come, only then they will reflect this era. The child protection crisis in this State requires a more concerted and high level approach than that taken by the Government currently. It is regrettable that the Taoiseach did not use the opportunity of the Cabinet reshuffle to appoint a full Minister for children, as I have called for on behalf of Sinn Féin. Others have also reflected that to be their view.

Last week, the Third Report of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, authored by Geoffrey Shannon, was published. The report was described by the Children's Rights Alliance as "a comprehensive, careful and considered analysis of the child protection landscape in Ireland, which makes a series of important recommendations for reform". Its key recommendations include to establish independent, statutory inquiries to respond to suspected fundamental failings of child care system - such inquiries should be public unless circumstances preclude this; to carry out an independent national review of our current child protection system to identify the primary child protection concerns and areas needing reform, including child deaths; to place Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children on a statutory footing; prior to this step, the guidelines should be amended to introduce a differential response model into our child protection system; to establish a committee on child welfare and protection within the office of the Minister for children and youth affairs to oversee inquiries into serious child protection failings; to ensure all care facilities receive independent and thorough inspections, including residential centres for children with intellectual disabilities and for separated children - where necessary, legislation to provide for this must be enacted; to place guidelines for the appointment, role and qualifications of guardians ad litem published by the Children Acts Advisory Board on a statutory footing and establish a regulatory body for guardians ad litem; and to reform our laws and court practice in regard to sexual offences against children. I endorse each of those recommendations and the other recommendations in the report and urge the Minister of State and his colleagues in the Government to set about implementing them.

I wish to highlight now a number of concerns that have been raised with me from within the child care and protection sector. HIQA has produced a set of draft standards for children in care which aim to cover both residential and foster care. Even though many of the same principles apply, these are two different areas of care and require different approaches. It has been represented to me that the new draft standards show a lack of awareness and in-depth understanding of the reality of foster care. That is not surprising given that foster carers have not been properly represented as critically important stakeholders. Foster carers very often see what is being done, or not being done as is too often the case, by the HSE and often have serious concerns and objections about the way matters are decided or managed.

The Childcare (Amendment) Bill 2009 still refers to "detaining" children and young people. It should instead provide for accommodating children and young people in secure accommodation. After-care should be enshrined as a right in legislation, as not all young people who are 18 years old have cognitive and functional abilities commensurate with their chronological age. They fall through a gap in the system, often with the most tragic results. Multi-modal assessments should be available to all children and young people in care, to obviate problems or at least diminish their manifestation.

I reiterate our call for the children's referendum to go ahead. As I have stated previously, the amendment should go some way to addressing some of the legal obstacles affecting the child protection system. If an amendment such as the one contained in the committee's report were enshrined in the Constitution, the State would have sufficient legal power to intervene on behalf of all children at risk, regardless of their parents' marital status.

Some of the wording in the proposed amendment was inspired by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNCRC, which Sinn Féin believes should be the absolute minimum in standards when it comes to children's rights. The principles in the UNCRC have been reiterated in numerous international and national treaties and it is now time this State took a rights-based approach to how children are treated in its laws and policies. While Sinn Féin has been a long-time advocate of enshrining children's rights in the Constitution, we must remember that there are not only legal issues to be resolved in order to enhance the rights of children. If we as Members of the Oireachtas, parents, and as people residing in this State, are to entrust the care of those children whose families can no longer care for them to the State, then the State's care regimes must be accountable and they must be able to fulfil their functions.

The clock is moving on. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, for his attendance and attention this afternoon. I endorse the call of the Children's Rights Alliance on the Minister of State to explain why the next State report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, on its progress in implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is now one year late. The Government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on 30 September 1990 and ratified it on 28 September 1992. By ratifying the UNCRC, the State committed itself to promote, protect and fulfil the rights of children as outlined in the articles of the UNCRC. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a body of 18 internationally elected independent experts on children's rights, monitors progress towards implementing those rights.

As a state party to the UNCRC this State is required to submit periodic reports describing progress towards implementing the UNCRC in this country. Submissions are also received from non-governmental organisations and independent human rights bodies. This State's report was due to be published a year ago yesterday but has yet to materialise. Does this expose a lack of commitment on the part of the State to the process and to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child itself? I ask the Minister of State to respond at the appropriate time.

It has been pointed out that many of the great strides to vindicate the rights of children in this country in recent years have been made on the back of the UN convention and its robust processes, playing a crucial role, for example, in ensuring the publication of a national children's strategy and the establishment of the office of the Ombudsman for Children. I will conclude with this appeal, this report should be published immediately. If that is not possible, I ask the Minister of State to make a statement explaining why it is not.

See this speech in context