Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister's point about how services are delivered, but I ask that when talking about children we refer to them as citizens rather than customers. It is more reflective of the fact that children have an entitlement to services. Will the Child and Family Support Agency be responsible to the Minister in the same way that the HSE is responsible to the Minister for Health? It will be very difficult to maintain proper scrutiny if the agency is at arms length or outsourced, so to speak. As members of the Opposition we are supposed to hold the Government to account but, in the case of the HSE, for example, it is really difficult for us to figure out how services are run. It can take ages to receive replies to questions and so forth. How does the Minister anticipate the agency will work? That will be critical if we are to move towards a different model of service delivery.

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