Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

This Bill and other proposed pieces of legislation represent a welcome shift in attitude by the Government. I welcome the Bill and I compliment both the Minister and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. There needs to be a change in the national attitude. I refer to a recent survey by the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children which found that 87% of respondents thought there was not sufficient information available about child protection and welfare. A worrying statistic is that 57% of those surveyed said they would feel nervous or not sure about, or would not report, a suspected case of child abuse or neglect. A total of 83% thought that children's rights are not protected in the same way as the rights of adults. The figure showing the number of people who are nervous about reporting suspected cases needs to change dramatically. Statistics from the Rape Crisis Network Ireland show that almost 80% of childhood sexual abuse victims were abused by someone known to them such as immediate family members, relatives or family friends. This fact needs to be dealt with.

While I welcome the Bill and compliment the Ministers, it is important that resources for support services are put in place along with the legislation. In my experience and I am sure it is the experience of many Members, persons supplying services to children such as social workers and allied health professionals and support staff, have significant case loads and they are currently under significant work pressure. There is no doubt that new legislation will impose further pressure on a creaking system. The report which was published last week stated that it is a service which is not fit for purpose. I worry that while we may have the written legislation in place, the necessary resources may not be in place to ensure that the legislation is operative so that young people, children and vulnerable adults, are protected properly. There is little use in having the legislation in place unless the service supports are in place.

I recently dealt with a young person who is just over 18 years of age and who is in difficulty. This young person is in no-man's-land, so to speak; nobody wants to deal with the individual who is apparently too old for the social work services and who is left in a very grey area. The Minister needs to ensure that vulnerable young people who may be just over the age of 18 are not cut adrift as is the current practice. I reported that case to various services and to date, that individual has not been contacted by any of those services. Only for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, that person would have a more significant difficulty. There needs to be a legal entitlement to after-care services. It is simply not good enough that persons who reach 18 years are no longer the responsibility of the State services. This point was made in the recent report.

The 24-hour availability of social work services is urgently required. We have been talking about it for years. Pilot programmes are in place in some areas but a national comprehensive service available on a 24-hour, seven days a week, basis, is required. I reiterate the point that the resources need to be put in place because the service is not fit for purpose and it is seriously overloaded and under pressure. This Bill and other legislative measures will create additional references to the various support agencies and in those circumstances, the current system which is creaking and is not fit for purpose, will come under additional pressure and will not be capable of ensuring that young people and vulnerable adults are protected.

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