Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)

I commend the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, on introducing the Bill. The Bill is important and my party supports it. It will help to ensure proper protection in the State for children and vulnerable adults. It is being introduced along with the children first Bill, which puts the Children First guidelines on a statutory footing. The thrust of both Bills will enhance our child protection system.

I commend the Minister on the process by which the Bill was taken before the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. Oireachtas Members and committee members have been able to scrutinise the details. Organisations with an interest and a contribution to make have been afforded the opportunity to present their views on where they believe the legislation should be altered or tweaked to ensure that when it is ultimately passed by the Houses, it will ensure the best possible outcomes and safeguards, it will ensure children and vulnerable people are protected and it will ensure that the public is clear on the onus to come forward with any information they may have relating to serious offences and that it is simply not acceptable for someone not to do so. Such inaction is punishable if a person fails in his duty.

The similar process taken at the Joint Committee on Health and Children of scrutinising the Children First Bill has been useful and productive. It will lead to that legislation being much improved when it comes before the House. This Bill deals with arrestable and prosecutable offences and any information relating specifically to offences of this nature. The children first Bill deals with a wider range of issues, especially those affecting the well-being of children. In particular it deals with the necessity for those in positions of responsibility, either in a professional or voluntary capacity and who are in contact with children and responsible for safeguarding them, to pass on any concerns they may have in respect of the well-being of a child where they believe the welfare of that child may not be secure.

Following the committee discussions, the Minister introduced a reasonable defence clause. Ultimately, this will be for the courts to decide. This provision was the result of contributions made earlier. The reasonable defence clause relates to serious offences. Although this has been taken on board in the Bill it is something which arises only in the most grave and exceptional of circumstances and when someone does not report something as serious as one of the offences listed. The Bill deals with that as best it can. Whether in respect of information on serious offences or child protection and welfare issues, appropriate action must be taken in the interest of the child. We cannot return to the situation of the past whereby too many people believed it was not their responsibility to play a part in ensuring children's well-being was protected by those who were looking after them. This Bill and the Children First Bill 2012, the heads of which are being considered by the Joint Committee on Health and Children, will bolster the child protection and welfare services of this country.

However, in conjunction with ensuring issues are reported to the appropriate authorities, we must also properly equip the agencies of the State to deal with vulnerable children in their care. The report on the deaths of children while in the care of the State produced by Dr. Geoffrey Shannon and Ms Norah Gibbons of Barnardos found that 112 of the 196 deaths which occurred between 2000 and 2010 were from unnatural causes. The report further found that many of the children who died of natural causes were not being provided with an adequate level of protection and care. That was a failure on the part of the State which was not related to the reporting of issues or of the children coming to its attention. All of these children were known to the State and were either in care or interacting with the HSE. In many instances the level of service and effort provided was insufficient to address the needs of these particularly vulnerable children.

By the time a child enters the care of the State he or she will already experienced extreme difficulties. In many cases they have high levels of need and they require a wide range of services in order to undo the damage they have suffered and to give them a viable pathway to adult life or a second chance at a happy childhood. In addressing the Bill before us and, more particularly, the children first Bill, we must ensure State services meet the needs of children who are brought to the attention of the HSE or the new child and family support agency by reports from professionals and members of the public.

People who deal with children should take a level of responsibility that is appropriate to their position so that issues are not escalated prematurely or in a way that is not in the best interest of the child concerned. We should be careful in introducing the criminal sanction aspects of the children first Bill to ensure that all cases where children do not receive adequate care are reported without creating an excessive burden on services. When reports are escalated at a very early stage it can allow people to avoid their own responsibilities. The Joint Committee on Health and Children has heard from a number of organisations on this subject. At our meeting yesterday representatives of the teaching unions expressed concern that criminal sanctions in the absence of adequate training could lead to a situation in which everything is immediately reported to the HSE. That would create the danger of drawing resources into the HSE to the detriment of providing services for children.

In many cases the social worker has the primary responsibility for dealing with calls and reports. Social worker numbers have come under significant pressure and since the start of last year the number of children in the care of the State with assigned workers has decreased from 94% to 91.9%. This points to the need for the Government to recruit additional social workers and adequately resource our child protection system. It is critical that every child in the care of the State is given a written care plan and assigned a social worker who can act as a contact point. We are not yet at that stage, however.

It is important that the views expressed by the organisations who discussed the Children First Bill with the Joint Committee on Health and Children are taken into account if we are to ensure children are protected and that reports are passed onto the State. No child should be endangered by a lack of legislation or guidance on how the public and the State should react to child protection and welfare issues.

We must ensure that, along with legislation, we put in place the resources so that children get the treatment and services they deserve when they come to the attention of the State. I urge the Minister and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to reinstate the exemption for social workers from the Civil Service recruitment embargo. The exemption was in place until recently. Responsibility has been devolved to HSE, which makes calls as it sees appropriate. We need to ring-fence all social work positions in child and family services and allow no slippage from that number. We should also increase the number. The Government has devolved responsibility to the HSE and has not taken the position that we must ring-fence the number of positions and replace staff. Maternity and temporary positions are not being filled, which has led to slippage with regard to the number of children in State care with an assigned social worker. It is important that the number of social workers is increased. It goes hand-in-hand with reforming our child protection and welfare service.

We will need to see that, through the establishment of the new child and family support agency at the start of next year, weaknesses in the system highlighted by several reports have been learned from so that this is a new departure. The new agency should have responsibility for services for children so that it becomes a child and family welfare and support agency rather than a child protection agency.

I assure the Minister of my party's support. Since the Bill was announced, coverage has focused on the narrow issue of sacerdotal privilege. The Minister noted the media obsession on this point and the genesis of the coverage goes back to the initial presentation of the Bill and the publication of the proposals for the Bill. This is a balanced and important Bill. It is important legislation in combination with the children first legislation. I forward to making a contribution to the children first legislation to ensure we have a child protection and welfare service in this country that looks after our children and ensures those who need support and services from the State receive them. This will ensure that we do not fail them, as happened in too many cases in the past.

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