Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There is a new national director with specific responsibility for children and families. My point is that the Deputy should not take my word for it but look at our record on child protection. We hired social workers when a moratorium was in place and there was virtually no other recruitment in the public service. That proves the commitment from the Government and me to ensuring child protection services are improved. We have confirmed the appointment of a new national director with specific responsibility for children and families, reporting for the first time to the chief executive of the HSE. That will centralise and mainstream child protection in the HSE for the first time.

I answered a question on the figures of deaths in care since March 2010 but I do not have the figures to hand. I will provide them to the Deputy as soon as possible.

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