Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

Yes, Waterford. The spokespersons will be out thumping the streets in those constituencies. However, I believe it is but a political ploy within the media to seek to link the referendum to by-elections, thus leading people to say that if they do what I have described, they will sign themselves out of work, for instance. The referendum should be held independently, irrespective of the number of by-elections to be held.

It is not widely known but the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, has €3 million in his budget under a subheading called "Referendum" for the holding of a referendum. He cannot say there is no money to have a referendum because he has it for that purpose. Consequently, there should be some momentum towards holding it.

Every member of the committee has worked hard on this issue and they have produced the report. There was a sense of something having happened, yet nothing has happened. There should be, in the short to medium term, an outline of how best and when to proceed. Each member of the committee that produced the report should seek to be active in the constituencies explaining it and outlining why we arrived at certain decisions. All the information is in the big yellow book but it should be explained in plain and simple terms to voters. This would be very worthwhile. There should be no onus on the Government to link the referendum to the by-elections. It is important that the referendum be held on its own and there should be no attempt to have it linked to the by-elections.

Bearing in mind all that happened, it was stated by some Members that much of the work of the Office of the Minister for Children is, sadly, linked to the publication of reports, be it the Ryan report, Murphy report or future reports. I am sure the future reports will be many and abject. There is a brouhaha over the reports. Individuals in media advertisements, civil servants, Ministers, Cabinet meetings, memoranda, etc., combine to create great sorrow over what happened and expectation over what must now be done. Underlying this is the continuing work of the Office of the Minister for Children, the constant observations he must make and the constant engagement he must have with the HSE.

I was very pleased to see so much has happened with regard to the Ryan report implementation plan. The Cabinet accepted the recommendations of the Ryan report, which was an amazing feat for any Cabinet. I do not believe I ever sat at a Cabinet table at which all the recommendations of a report were accepted. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, on this.

The group's role is to see that implementation of the recommendations is effected clearly, concisely and with alacrity. I congratulate the Minister of State on getting the go-ahead for the appointment of the social workers. Nobody talked about this. In a time of great retrenchment, the filling of 270 social worker posts by the end of this year will be an enormous achievement. I saw an advertisement in this regard last weekend and that is why I was interested in what the Minister of State had to say. I was also interested in the emoluments that obtain. The social workers will be well worth it because their work is not of a kind that is constantly lauded throughout the land. To provide for the posts was very good. Progress is ongoing on the revised Children First guidelines.

The Minister of State referred to the assistant national director for children and families, Mr. Phil Garland. I met him at a function held recently by Ms Emily Logan and was very struck by his common sense, his enthusiasm for his work, the framework under which he will work and the outlook for his work.

The Minister of State has established an independent review group on child deaths. What he has asked it to do is very significant. I also congratulate the Minister of State and his officials on their work. There will always be dreadful reports and cases that will strike each of us to the core of our hearts although we wish no child would ever be disturbed or disarranged in life, particularly in Ireland. Significant structured progress has been made that will yield fruit.

The issue of the referendum remains. Much work has to be done to establish goodwill towards the wording that has been agreed upon, which I presume is the wording that will be accepted by the Cabinet. There will be a long lead-in time in that regard and, consequently, the sooner we know the date of the referendum, even if it is in the medium term, the sooner we can all get back to work on the issue. I am glad to have been able to speak on this matter.

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