Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

No.

The Government responded to the Ryan report with an implementation plan. We have already put in place leadership positions with specific responsibility for children and families. An additional 200 social workers will be recruited which in the current economic context is an extraordinary commitment. Not only is €15 million provided for the implementation plan to effect these changes, €3 million has been set aside for a referendum this year, as Deputy O'Rourke said.

There is not enough reference to child protection at the highest level of the HSE. I have never heard its chief executive officer, Professor Drumm, make a speech on child protection. The new HSE chief executive officer will have to take this on at the highest level. We are now falling over reports on the implementation of Children First when we need to move on.

Children First is the core document for child protection and welfare services. While we are ambitious about the referendum, if we cannot get the implementation of Children First right then we will have nothing to shout about.

I reject the claims of a cover-up of failings of child protection. The terms quoted from the PA Consulting report were the same used in the report published last week by the HSE such as "wholly inadequate and unprofessional responses to children's protection and welfare" and "services that did not deliver to children".

The only material missing in the HSE report was the specific details about what happened to the poor unfortunate individuals contained in the case review which was published by Deputy Shatter. I have telephone calls to my office on a regular basis from their families concerned about these continuing revelations. Instead of highlighting their details, we need to learn from their experiences.

I have always been the staunchest supporter of social workers. The PA Consulting report stated social workers work in the most challenging area of the HSE. However, if social workers want to be treated as the professionals they are, then failure to achieve minimum professional standards must carry with it consequences, as it does in every other profession. That itself is a catalyst for change and an improvement.

We are at a particular point in reforming the delivery of child welfare and protection services. The HSE has initiated its own reforms with the setting up of regional directors of operations and different changes in responsibilities. We have begun the reform of the delivery of child welfare and protection services particularly with standardising business processes. We will be introducing a knowledge management system that will ensure that at any one time we will be able to elicit the kind of information we need.

I do not doubt the motives behind Deputy Shatter's "Let in the Light" website but I reject the notion we are trying to cover anything up. We are trying to drive change while protecting privacy, particularly that of the children of these unfortunate people who have died. We must strike a balance between protecting their privacy and having transparency and full disclosure. We are not trying to hide behind their privacy.

Deputy Breen raised the issue of delays in the Garda vetting process of which I am aware. The Garda has informed me it is recruiting more personnel to deal with the backlog. Deputy Burton raised the sensitive issue of adoption tracing and asked for it to be opened up to see how many people have been matched. The number of matches is on average the same as it is in other jurisdictions which the 2009 Adoption Board annual report identified.

However, a Supreme Court judgment on a pre-1952 adoption, of which Deputy Shatter is aware, states a balance must be struck between the right to privacy of the natural mother and the right to know. It is an extremely sensitive issue.

Deputy Reilly asked why so many reports were redacted. I recall that recently when Deputy Shatter asked at the Joint Committee on Health and Children for the reports into the cases of young person A and B to be published, he said he did not mind if they were redacted.

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