Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)

I know but that was the context in which it happened.

Like Deputy Jonathan O'Brien, being informed this morning that we were to debate an actual report rather than child protection generally was disappointing as I would have liked to have had more time to prepare.

The report investigated the deaths of children in care, including deaths by natural causes, the deaths of children known to the child protection system, the deaths of young adults up to 21 years of age who were in the care of the Health Service Executive prior to their 18th birthday, in cases where confirmed or suspected abuse involved the death of or a serious injury to a child known to the HSE and serious incidents involving a child in care or known to the child protection service. This list is an appalling vista. Each of these deaths is regrettable and had to be investigated.

I am also conscious of those who died while in the care of the State in residential institutions and the Magdalene laundries. It is important to identify weaknesses in policy and practice. Vulnerable young people can become involved with a variety of services. All too often, because there are so many services involved, these young people can get lost between them all. It is important there is one key worker in charge of all of this to ensure no child falls through the gaps.

It is important the State acknowledges blame if it has contributed to any of the cases in question. The Minister claimed child protection is complex and challenging. I do not entirely agree with this. It would not be complex if the child were put at the centre of the care model. I know of the Minister's commitment to this issue and acknowledge the work she has already done with the interdepartmental group, the publication of the Children First guidelines and the child protection welfare practice handbook and the meetings she has held with various agencies and groups. Her background in social work helps in this.

The line "That changed some childish day to tragedy" in W. B. Yeats's "Among School Children" always struck me because no child's day should end up in tragedy. It is up to parents, society, schools and those social workers, probation officers, gardaí and youth workers, who through their work come in contact with children, to ensure children's rights are respected. The Government and Parliament also have a role to play in this regard and it is vital children's rights are inserted into the Constitution. That is all paperwork as it were, however.

Childhood should be a time of happiness and joy, a time of exploring and learning about boundaries. It should be a time when the adults in the lives of children offer support and guidance. All of this must contribute to the child's sense of self-esteem and self worth. If we get this right, the child will be able to move into adulthood, taking his or her place in society. It is most unfortunate this does not happen for significant numbers of children.

Many teachers, when they encounter a child for the first time in junior infants, have a good idea what road the child will take because of family and socio-economic background. Every child must have the opportunity to fulfil his or her potential. To achieve this, areas such as housing, schools, play and leisure activities must be involved. In the home, a child must feel protected and safe. We know this is not the case for all children. The State must play a more proactive role in providing safeguards and supports in such cases.

I know many dedicated social workers committed to the young people in their care. However, there are serious gaps in the service. Social workers need to be involved more in preventive strategies with families, in improving parental capacity and so reduce the risk of harm or abuse to children. It is vital early intervention is developed to avoid cases escalating and becoming a crisis management. With over 6,000 children in care, the biggest scandal is the lack of out-of-hours social services.

Due to these gaps, more children and teenagers are ending up in the juvenile justice system. Serious concerns have been expressed that boys of 16 and 17 years of age are still detained in St. Patrick's Institution, an environment not suitable to their needs as pointed out by the Irish Penal Reform Trust and many of the chaplains working in the Prison Service. At a briefing yesterday, the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, said the very fact that children were being incarcerated in a prison is a serious contravention of international human rights standards. If resources were put into prevention, no child would end up in prison. The Inspector of Prisons noted in 2009 that 25% of the juvenile population in St. Patrick's requested to be held in protection, fearing for their own safety. While 16 and 17 year olds do not consider themselves as children, they still are legally. Those detained in St. Patrick's should not be detained there. We know the type of skills they will learn in prison which will only have them back there in the future. We also know the significant number of people from certain areas in Dublin, some of which I represent, who are in and out of prison.

Schooling is not a level playing field. Schooling and education should further and enhance equality, not contribute to inequality. As both a teacher and through my involvement in voluntary youth work since the 1960s, I know how preventive measures can work. Getting children and young people into clubs, sporting organisations, art, music and drama, much of which is organised by volunteers, is very important to their development. The young people's facilities and services fund, which is now based in the Minister's Department, is a great initiative introduced ten years ago, making moneys available for capital projects, services and programmes. I chaired the group for north inner city Dublin. It was aimed at those most at risk of drug abuse and drug misuse. It provided many examples of great engagement with young people giving them opportunities to develop their talents and have fun while ensuring they were not involved in anti-social behaviour. In recent budgets, funding for many of these groups and clubs has been cut, leaving many in a precarious position, however. These are the groups working directly with young people to keep them out of the system this very report investigated. We have Garda diversion projects, the juvenile liaison officer system, case management of those coming to the attention of the law, and the Breaking the Cycle programmes. There is much good work going on directly with young people, and it is making a difference.

There are groups of young people who are particularly vulnerable, and the homeless are one of those groups. Serious child protection issues arise and there is a need for the youth homelessness strategy to be replaced. I suggest asking somebody like Peter McVerry for his input in that particular area.

Regarding migrant children, in Dublin's inner city there are very good youth projects working with unaccompanied minors but we have a complex immigration-residency-asylum system and we need a more efficient system of citizenship applications within a reasonable time.

I want to highlight again those children who have gone missing, some of them from State care.

On the removal of separated children to direct provision centres once they turn 18, I had some examples of that in a particular school. The young migrant children had completed fifth year but because they turned 18 they were moved out of the school and out of Dublin. I met the officials but they were not prepared to look at the individual. It was a system but no system will work unless we take the individual into account.

Regarding Traveller children, I know there are difficulties in this area because my own school was involved with Traveller education and there are no easy answers on that issue.

In terms of young people who turn to drugs and alcohol misuse and become addicted, on Monday night I attended one of the inner city projects, Soilse, where young men and women, some teenagers and some slightly older, were being awarded certificates because they had come through detox, recovery, rehabilitation and residential group work. Every one of those young people was in a positive place because the project was there to support them. The money for that project is saving the State far more than if those young people had continued on the addiction road. What struck me about them is that all of them wanted to give something back, and they wanted to do that with other young people.

We discussed previously the missing children hotline. We are one of the countries in Europe which has not put that in place. We know that the first 24 hours are crucial to safely recovering missing children and having a common helpline in member states of the European Union would speed up that vital response.

Regarding young people suffering homophobic bullying, we have a great organisation in Dublin Central called BeLonG To which is doing tremendous work with gay, lesbian and transgender young people.

The media coverage of young people was alluded to earlier. Hallowe'en is a problematic time for young people. Where I live in East Wall we had a terrific programme and one of the events was a parade which involved more than 800 people walking through the streets on Hallowe'en night. The Garda referred to the fact that there was no trouble at the parade but the media, most inappropriately, insisted on carrying stories involving the area which gave a completely different impression. There was no coverage of the positive events that went on organised by young people with the youth leaders for young people.

This morning we had a group in for the cross-party mental health group, Unilink, organised by Deputy Simon Harris. That is a group of people in third level working with vulnerable students who they want to retain in the system, and we were all impressed by the work they were doing. It was to do with the way they saw an issue. They did not wait for the State to do anything but got involved themselves. There are many examples of that going on because sometimes the State gets caught up in the bureaucracy and the people get lost in that.

We talk about our assets, money, economics etc. but our most valuable asset is our children and they must be protected.

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