Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raised broad questions on young people in Ireland and it is true that Irish childhood has in many ways changed beyond belief in respect of the progress of children, for example, in the changed attitude to violence and the opportunities many children have. Nevertheless, it is clear there are some highly vulnerable children in our society who need the kind of support to which the Deputy refers. The Government needs to be highly alert in this regard and this is not simply an issue for my Department but is cross-departmental. It is very important that the Departments of Education and Skills and Health, as well as my Department, should work together as is the case, for example, in respect of bullying and working with the anti-bullying forum and in ensuring, as the Minister, Deputy Quinn is doing, that increased funding is being provided for initiatives in that area. He also intends to launch, in conjunction with the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, stronger guidelines in respect of mental health issues in schools. There have been some very tragic cases recently and it is important to bring in the supports at an early enough stage to those children who are vulnerable.

This is the reason the new Child and Family Support Agency will focus on prevention, on identifying those children and families and on making sure that, as I indicated to Deputy Healy earlier today, the family resource centres and the supports they offer are working with the agency to ensure we get those services to young people when they need them. I will also ensure that the funding streams for the youth services will be reformed. I take the Deputy's point and I believe the youth services around Ireland are doing a wonderful job in engaging with some of our most marginalised young people. In addition, I pay tribute to the Garda diversion programme, which has been hugely successful but does not attract much attention or recognition. A huge amount of support is being given to young people, unfortunately, not always successfully as Members will have seen in the child death report and more recent reports. However, these initiatives will make a difference to the children to whom the Deputy referred.

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