Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

It was in November, in the course of a response on the review of serious incidents in care services, including the deaths of children in care, that the Minister referred in the House to the Cork and Donegal pilot projects. All of this was in the context of a progress report on the Ryan report implementation group which was placed before the Houses in July last. There is also an implementation group to oversee the roll-out of a national out-of-hours service. In the absence of a State-wide out-of-hours service, children in distress or in need of emergency accommodation are either brought to or obliged to present at a Garda station, where they must await the arrival of a social worker or other service supports. A report by the Ombudsman for Children on homeless children cited children's own experiences of being obliged to present at or be brought to a Garda station and what this exposed them to. There is no question about the understanding and responsible attitude of the Garda which would be dealing with cases as they present; that is not the focus of my question, rather it concerns the impact of what actually can occur in a Garda station. Let us be clear about this. A great number of these sad incidents will occur during the evening or at weekends. Many other things also happen in Garda stations and I do not believe it is appropriate that children are placed in these environments.

How many times has the implementation group met? Are we any closer - I note what the Minister said - to having a comprehensive out-of-hours service rolled out? Has any consideration been given to co-operation on a North-South basis, particularly where there are communities straddling the Border for which an out-of-hours service could be provided on a shared basis between authorities North and South?

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