Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta Upton.

This Bill is welcome as a necessary updating of legal provisions relating to special care for children. It is a complex and technical Bill and will likely receive little attention from the wider public and even less in the news media. All the more reason, then, for it to be properly debated and scrutinised in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

A number of significant gaps have been identified in the Bill by those working on the front line in this area, and the Government should listen carefully to those informed concerns.

It needs to fill the legislative gaps and the gaps in service provision accordingly. I hope the Government agrees to adopt the constructive amendments that will be tabled on Committee Stage.

The context of this Bill is a greater focus than ever before on the legal rights of children. The Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, on which I served, worked very hard and produced a significant body of work but its recommendations now need to be acted upon. Above all, we need to see the Government proceeding with the referendum to insert strengthened rights for children in the Constitution.

It would be far better if we were considering this Bill with the constitutional amendment on children already in place. At the very least we should have a clear Government commitment to hold the referendum and within a stated timeframe. Regrettably, that is something we yet do not have. The Government says it has a range of concerns about the wording agreed by the committee. The Government was represented on the committee and had all the advice available to it then that it has now and which it claims is urging hesitation and delay. From our point of view as Opposition voices a postponement of the referendum may yet occur. I do not doubt the sincerity of the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, but the situation regarding the referendum casts a shadow over this Bill and its passage. The Government can remove that cloud to some extent by ensuring that a much improved Bill emerges from Committee Stage and I so urge.

Leadership is needed, not only in terms of legislation but in ensuring reform and improvement in the delivery of services. Over the summer we had the shocking report by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, on the quality, safety and management of HSE foster care services in Dublin. The most damning finding was that the problems were known for years but were not addressed, thus exposing, as stated in the report, "serious deficiencies in the effectiveness, accountability, governance and management of these services, and the lack of emphasis on a child-centred culture at all levels of the HSE, but more significantly at senior management level". The HSE was found deficient in its vetting, assessment and approval of foster carers, particularly relative carers.

HIQA also raised serious concerns about child protection practices. The fact that these findings were made about two Dublin areas but that a third area was found to be mostly safe and well organised emphasises the need for management in the culpable areas to be held accountable. It beggars belief that no action was taken by the HSE against management in the two Dublin areas where HIQA found massive management failures that endangered children. HSE managers are to remain unaccountable. That is totally unacceptable to this Deputy and the party I represent.

The HIQA report raised wider questions about the ability of the HSE to fulfil its child protection responsibilities and exposed the failure of Government in both child protection strategy and the provision of resources. It is against that background that we consider the extensive powers and responsibilities of the HSE as reaffirmed in this Bill. Those powers and responsibilities must be exercised within an ethos of accountability in which the child always - I emphasise always - comes first. Ultimately it is the Minister's responsibility to ensure the HSE is doing its job properly.

The Minister needs to listen very carefully to the considered submissions of a range of responsible organisations who have raised concerns and proposed improvements in this Bill. They have the first-hand knowledge and expertise that comes from working with the children for whom this legislation is primarily intended.

Prominent among the recommendations for an improved Bill is the call for a statutory right to aftercare. Focus Ireland has done much work in this area and is to be commended for its efforts. There is surely no valid counter-argument to the call for the HSE to be required in this legislation to ensure that there is after-care provision for young people leaving care at the age of 18, should they actually require it.

I understand the Minister has suggested that only a small minority leaving the care system need such aftercare. Even if this were the case it would be no argument against making aftercare a statutory right for the people concerned and an obligation on the HSE in the first instance. The Minister's contention that it is only a small minority does not stand up to scrutiny. I reject that claim. The case for a statutory right to aftercare has been made comprehensively and is, I believe, irrefutable. Its absence can only add to the tragically growing numbers of young people experiencing homelessness, addiction and a life of misery after they are abandoned by the care system when they reach 18 years of age.

There is a range of other concerns that have been raised and need to be addressed. Time does not permit an exposition on each of them but I will mention some of the main points. A set of complex problems have been identified in regard to the provisions of guardian ad litem services. In summary what is needed is reform of the guardian ad litem system to better represent and protect children and to ensure that their voices are heard. The Bill does not go far enough in that regard. I urge the Minister to engage directly with the appropriate organisations, Focus Ireland, Barnardos, the Irish Association of Young People in Care and the Irish Foster Care Association on this aspect of the Bill.

Clarification is sought as to whether section 23NF of the Bill requires the HSE to obtain a High Court order before removing the child from this jurisdiction. There is a need to develop a therapeutic dimension to special care. I recommend to the Minister that a new section be inserted in the Bill to place an absolute responsibility on the State to accommodate all young people appropriately, taking account of their needs. I deplore the recent return to a mentality that would rather clamp down on homeless young people for begging on the street than address the causes of homelessness and the needs of the homeless.

The Bill should be used as an opportunity to place the 2004 regulations on the operation of special care units into primary legislation. Concern has also been expressed about the Bill's removal of the obligation on the HSE to convene family welfare conferences. Perhaps the Minister of State would address this and the other concerns I have raised when he concludes the debate on this Stage.

The Sinn Féin Deputies are happy to support the Bill and we urge the Government to take on board the constructive proposals for its improvement and enhancement. It is not about making us happier that he would do this, it is about ensuring we have legislation that will be fit for purpose and that will make a real difference in the lives of those who most need our help and support.

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