Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply and the information she provided. What is the current capacity of Ballydowd, Gleann Alainn and Coovagh special care units? How many children can they cater for and how many staff do they have? While it is welcome that there is no waiting list and that the problems identified in 2007 by the High Court appear to have been ameliorated, how many children pass through the special care units each year? How many children passed through the units in 2011 and 2012 for example? I note Gordon Jeyes's point on the use of agency staff. The children in these units have very challenging behavioural issues and there was an issue in 2007 and onwards about agency staff. I note that Jennifer Hough in the Irish Examiner made a particular study of Gleann Alainn and reported publicly on a number of occasions about some of the things that had happened there. I have seen a recent estimate that there are approximately 104 staff across the three centres. Can we take it that agency staff are no longer used and that all staff are qualified?

The Minister of State referred to HSE v. WR and said that annual reports are provided by HIQA now. Is the Minister of State happy with that or would she have preferred that reports would have been compiled for the High Court?

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