Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I believe amendments Nos. 17, 18 and 19 are key to this Bill. These amendments address the need for statutory right to after care. I cannot emphasise enough how important I believe that to be. I believe it to be central and crucial to the value of the legislation being considered here this evening.

There can be no valid counter argument to the call for the Health Service Executive to be legislatively required to ensure there is after care provision for young people leaving care at the age of 18 where that care is deemed required. I noted from the Minister of State's earlier commentary that he has suggested only a small minority leaving the care system need such after care. Even if that were the case, and I am not of the view that is necessarily so, it would not be an argument against the placing of a legislative requirement on the HSE to provide after care and to make it a statutory right of all those young people concerned, making it a clear and absolute obligation on the HSE into the future. The Minister's contention that it is only a small minority that need such care does not stand up to scrutiny. The case for a statutory right to after care has been made comprehensively and is irrefutable. I have said in other fora that its absence can only add to the tragically growing numbers of young people experiencing homelessness, addiction and being condemned to a life of misery after they are abandoned - that is not too strong a word to use - by the care system on reaching the new age of majority of 18.

I acknowledge that the Minister of State has ordered a review of after care provision, instructed the HSE to draw up guidelines on the way after care is provided, promised more HSE staff to provide after care and told the HSE that it must provide after care if it has identified that young people coming out of care need it. That is all very well but that leaves a critical fault line in all of this; it leaves the discretion with the HSE.

The Minister maintains there is no need for a legal right to receive after care. I take a contrary view, and I am influenced by a number of commentators and commentary. Focus Ireland has pointed out that a legal right to after care would mean the most vulnerable young people would no longer be at the mercy of the HSE's decisions about what they need. Instead, they would have the right to that after care legislatively enshrined and statutorily enforceable. That is hugely important, whatever number of young people are involved.

The most important intervention in regard to this Bill, and I want to bring it to the Minister's attention, has come from the Ombudsman for Children, and I thank her for it. We talked earlier about listening. I urge the Minister of State to listen to and act on the advice of the Ombudsman who has stated:

The Bill needs to be amended to impose a positive obligation on the State to provide aftercare for every child in care whether they are in voluntary care, or in care under a care order, supervision order or under a special care order at least until they are 21. The care plan for each child should address this issue at least two years before the child's eighteenth birthday and foster care support should be extended to cover the entire period of aftercare of the child or young person. The young person should be involved in the case review of the care plan and his or her concerns should be noted and addressed in the review prior to leaving care. Where special difficulties arise, a connection with an appropriate support agency should be made in advance of the exit from care.

I am anxious to hear the Minister of State's response to Ms Logan's recommendation. It is important that we have a clear understanding of from where the Minister and his colleagues in Government are coming in regard to this area.

I conclude with the observation that, too sadly, we have seen a litany of lives lost and lives condemned to despair post their being placed in care and having reached 18, the age of majority. We must ensure there can be no slipping through the net, that nobody can be lost. Those critical years, having reached 18 years, are hugely challenging. In real terms people are still coming to terms with all the challenges of adult life before them. Without the certainty of the after care and the supports that are needed, the word "abandonment" I used earlier is not an over the top reference in this instance but, all too sadly, an appropriate reflection on what has been happening.

I want to make it clear to the Minister that no matter what pantomime is taking place in any proximity to this institution this evening, I intend to press this amendment.

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