Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

That is not a point of order. The position is that HIQA took the unprecedented step on 15 October 2009 of writing to the Minister of State in advance of the report it was publishing, due to its enormous concern for the well-being of the children in foster care, whom it had discovered had not been properly provided for nor dealt with.

That is information I believe the Minister should have shared with this House. It is information that should have been brought to the attention of this House and in relation to it the Minister of State should have informed the House as regards what action, if any, was being taken by him and by the HSE to address the problems that had arisen. Those problems were enormous. I am quoting from the initial HIQA report with regard to the Dublin north-west area: The number of children in foster care – 389; number of children without an allocated social worker – 189; number of foster carers without a link worker – 62. The statistics for the Dublin north-central area are as follows: The number of children in foster care – 309; number of children without an allocated social worker – 103; number of carers without a link worker – 109.

This was contained in an interim report by HIQA to the Minister of State because of the catastrophic circumstances it discovered in the context of the abject failure of the HSE - and this followed similar reports relating to deficiencies in those areas which first started to be made to successive Ministers of State with responsibility for children in 2004, and thereafter. I want to know why the Minister of State with responsibility for children and the Minister for Health and Children did not put in place an oversight after the first report of problems in this area, relating to 2004. Why did they go to sleep and do nothing until HIQA discovered what was happening? The dysfunction that exists within our child care services, the lack of co-ordination and oversight and the attempts to escape from political accountability and responsibility continue to this very day, because-----

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