Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)

I welcome this debate and thank the Minister for remaining in the House throughout. Too often Ministers come for the opening round of speaking slots and then must leave, for whatever reason. It is commendable that this Minister has been present for every contributor's speech.

Last week when the Dáil schedule was published and speaking slots allocated the matter was to be child protection. Only today I found out we were to speak on the actual report. The report warrants debate in the House and I welcome that development.

The report deals with 35 deaths and 16 serious incidents since March 2010 involving children in the care of the HSE, otherwise known to the organisation. Causes were suicide, drug overdoses, road traffic accidents. It made for very disturbing reading. However shocking those tragedies are for us who read the report this pales into insignificance when compared to the devastation experienced by the families of those children.

Regrettably, the report received very little coverage from the media. I do not know the reason for this, perhaps we have seen so many reports on child protection throughout the years that the media have become immune to the subject. That is a sad reflection, not only on the media but on us as a society. Most of the coverage amounted to no more than opinion pieces saying how terrible and awful it was and asking what should be done about it, without really addressing the core of the issue, which is that child protection services in this State are systematically flawed, are under-resourced and lack the robustness required of a system that is responsible for the safety and welfare of children.

The review panel was established on foot of a recommendation in the Ryan report. Sinn Féin welcomed the establishment of the panel. The HIQA guidance document that set out which incidents should be examined was so broad that it led to the work of the review panel being hindered in many ways. That is not to say we would change any of the cases that fell under the remit of the review panel. It is absolutely essential for there to be transparency in all of these cases. All deaths of children who were in care or known to the HSE, all cases of abuse involving death and all deaths involving children in aftercare services must be kept within the remit of the review panel.

The remit of the panel is so broad that additional resources are required. It must be able to conduct its business adequately within a timeframe that is conducive to getting to the root causes of deaths. It has to be able to identify where mistakes were made. An unfortunate result of the criteria set out in the HIQA guidelines is that a substantial number of cases need to be examined. The panel has to commence an incident review within four months and a death review within one month. That is a very short timeframe given that the panel is dealing with such a large volume of cases. It is for that reason that the child protection structures need to be adequately resourced.

Regardless of whether we provide more funding so that the panel can operate at the required level, or increase the number of people who are examining these cases, the timeframes are simply too short and need to be addressed. The review panel said in the report that the timeframes are unworkable. It is clear that the Ministers for Children and Youth Affairs and Health need to take this on board and examine it. I hope the Minister, Deputy Reilly, will consider the need to re-examine the guidelines that are in place.

It is important for the Government to commit to resourcing and implementing changes that address the high number of cases that social workers have to deal with. I acknowledge that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is doing her best in poor financial circumstances. It is not just her responsibility, however. The blame for cases of HSE child protection services failing to protect children does not lie squarely at the Minister's feet. As I have said, she is doing a difficult job under significant financial constraints. Her Cabinet colleagues are also responsible for ensuring the proper funding is in place to allow the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to do the job it needs to do.

I ask the Minister for Finance, who is holding the purse strings, to keep this area in mind when he is making budgetary decisions on the public expenditure of the HSE and the Department of Health. It has to be acknowledged that, as Deputy Ó Caoláin said this morning, children are unfortunately bearing the burden of the economic catastrophe we are experiencing. We constantly hear about children who are being taken into care. Substantial numbers of children are being placed in care. In some cases, that is happening not because of the inability of their parents or families to look after them, or because of a risk of abuse, but because their families simply cannot afford to raise them.

As previous speakers have said, some children in this State go to school hungry every single day. That is not the fault of their parents - it is the fault of the State for not providing services or resources to ensure it does not happen. When children enter the foster care system, there is an irregular pattern to their appointments with social workers. We need to address that. There is a long and sad history of separated children who are seeking asylum in this State being placed in appropriate hostel accommodation before going missing from the system. As a State, we have never been fully accountable for these children.

I urge the Government to ensure the resources that are needed are provided. The number of social workers should be increased, if possible. The Government should make family-friendly budgetary decisions that ensure children can stay with their families. State care is not a good place for children in Ireland. The Government has an opportunity to make it better. I am sure it has the support of all parties in this House in its efforts. As I have said, the Cabinet as a whole needs to take responsibility for this issue. The Minister for Finance needs to ensure adequate resources are given to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs so that children can be put first.

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