Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the wide range of comments made in the course of the debate and the acknowledgement by many Deputies of the importance not only of the issue before us but also the broader issue of child protection and the need to develop services and provide the resources required in this area. I also note their concern that children should be placed centre stage and resources must be allocated to ensure we deliver the type of integrated services that are required.

Clearly, there are major legacy issues in the area of child protection, which has been underfunded, under-resourced, under-attended and, in recent years, cut back. Moreover, information on child protection has lacked consistency. I am shocked by much of what I am uncovering in respect of the lack of data about the state of child protection services. A systemic audit of the services is being carried out and I will publish data and bring them to the attention of Deputies as I receive them. It is important that we carry out a serious examination of child protection services and the serious challenges faced by those on the front line.

I will not be able to repair the deficit in children's services overnight. While this task will take time to complete, I am confident that the building blocks are beginning to be put in place to ensure we have a child protection service of which we can be proud. I await a number of further reports. I will shortly receive a report on child deaths over the past ten years and the HSE audit of the church dioceses will also be presented shortly, as will a number of other reports. These will paint a disturbing picture and present a major challenge.

As I noted, the area of child protection has been underfunded. Serious cutbacks were imposed on the services last year. The provision for child protection services in the HSE was underfunded and continues to show a serious deficit. Proper provision has not been made for this area over the years and funding provisions have been absorbed into other areas. All of this makes for a highly challenging scenario.

Deputies raised a wide range of issues. In response to Deputy Harris's point on St. Patrick's Institution, I will ask my officials to examine the issue. I am concerned that 16 and 17 year old children remain in the institution. While I do not have budgetary provision for moving the young people in question elsewhere, the Government remains committed to delivering such a change in its lifetime. I am discussing this matter with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, who understands its seriousness and the need for decisions to be taken.

Deputies spoke of the range of factors which affect children, many of which were referred to in the national review panel report. Young children experiencing poverty is clearly a pressure while the most common form of abuse is neglect. Many families are presenting to the child and family services.

The children's referendum will be held in 2012. It is important to note that all lobbying groups and specialist agencies in the area of child protection supported my decision to take time to get the wording right and ensure people understand the reasons the referendum is necessary. If anything, recent developments have reinforced the need for members of the public to understand the reasons for referendums and their nuances and implications. Only then will they support the children's referendum. I look forward to working with all those who spoke on the issue and receiving cross-party support when we publish the referendum wording.

A number of Deputies referred to the number of social workers. By the end of 2011, an additional 60 social workers will be in place, all of which are new and extra posts. It is important to note that we have maintained social worker numbers in the face of extraordinary financial pressures. I pay tribute to the work of Mr. Gordon Jeyes who is under great pressure regarding the filling of new social worker posts. I confirm that the HSE national director is filling vacancies. Many members of the HSE social work service have gone on maternity leave in the past year and many of the subsequent vacancies have been filled despite the significant financial pressures facing the HSE. I would like to have more resources to build social work teams but the financial pressures on the HSE and child and family protection services are severe. Budgets are contracting at a time of significant additional cost pressures arising from the courts demanding more specialist care for children and increasing costs in the guardian ad litem system. I reiterate that I regret some of these issues were not addressed more comprehensively when more money was available.

A number of Deputies referred to after care. In the past year, aftercare workers have been allocated to approximately 1,000 young people and a new aftercare policy has been introduced which will make a difference. We must provide continuous care as opposed to aftercare because that is what young people who have been in care need. There is significant new awareness of this issue and a commitment to providing this type of care in the HSE.

It is unrealistic for Deputies to ask the reason the child and family support agency has not yet been established. It will take some time to make the transition from the Health Service Executive. A task force is examining the transition and we are disaggregating the work of the child and family services in the HSE and creating a new budget line. In the coming year a shadow agency will start to operate in the HSE and the new agency will be in place by January 2013.

There is serious work to be done on the transfer of staff. Several Deputies spoke about this challenge and gave support to those staff, and I will certainly take their points on board.

There has been much progress. Deputies who talk about going backwards are not appreciating the rate of change and the amount of change that has taken place. We have set up a cross-departmental working group to deal with the implementation of Children First. I am now chairing the Ryan implementation group. The progress report of the implementation group was placed before the House in July. Many Deputies raised the question of an out-of-hours service. We now have two pilot projects in Cork and Donegal. We now have an implementation group to oversee the roll-out of a national out of hours service. Many other initiatives have taken place. The Garda vetting Bill will be in place over the next few months. There has been much progress, but the challenge is enormous.

I want to thank all the Deputies who spoke on this report today. HIQA is examining the report and its officials will discuss whether the terms of reference should be changed for examining the deaths of children who have been in contact with the HSE or who are in care. I will ensure that this work is done promptly, so that we can take on board the recommendations made by Professor Helen Buckley, who produced the report in the first place.

I also thank the Deputies for the range of issues they raised today, and I look forward to further debates on this important area of child protection and welfare.

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