Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill as a necessary amendment to the Child Care Act 1991. It is a further step in the improvement of legislative and administrative provisions for the care of children. That is a process that I hope we all support. The strengthening of the foundations of legal rights for children was an important milestone of progress. We look forward to further necessary legislation, some of which was referred to by Deputy Robert Troy.

While I acknowledge unreservedly that the Government, not least the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, deserves credit for successfully championing the children's rights referendum, I regret the Government's credit is tarnished by its futile and punitive austerity measures which are increasing child poverty in the State. That is not just a general statement but a fact that I know most definitely from the cases presented to me as a Dáil Deputy week in, week out. It is a real set of circumstances that we cannot and must not ignore.

I look forward to the establishment of the child and family support agency. I have raised this with the Minister repeatedly. I raised it last week with Mr. Gordon Jeyes at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children. When the agency is established, it will take over many responsibilities currently residing with the Health Service Executive. We addressed this at this morning's meeting of the committee. The responsibilities include those covered in this Bill.

The Bill provides for the extension of an interim care order from eight days to 29 days where consent has not been obtained from parents or guardians. This will bring the periods in section 17(2) of the parent Act, the Child Care Act 1991, broadly into line as all periods will be 29 days. This period will be a maximum for an interim care order without consent. With parental consent, the period may exceed 29 days.

Part 4 of the Child Care Act 1991, as amended, sets out provisions relating to the making of a care order and a supervision order. Section 16 allows the HSE to make an application for a care order or supervision order in respect of a child residing in its area where it appears the child is in need of care or protection.

A supervision order authorises the HSE to visit a child at specified periods to allow it to ascertain the welfare of the child or to provide advice on the care of the child. Under section 17(1), where an application for a care order has been made or is about to be made and an urgent protection need arises, an interim care order can be made pending the determination of the care order application. Section 17(2)(b) provided that the parent or person acting in loco parentis gave consent, an interim care order could be granted for a period exceeding eight days and, where they did not give consent, for a period not exceeding eight days. This was amended by section 267 of the Children Act 2001, which allowed an interim order with consent for a period exceeding 28 days and limited an order without consent to a period not exceeding 28 days. Section 17(2) of the 1991 Act also allows for an extension of an interim care order.

Until now, this would exceed eight days with the permission of the parents or those actingin loco parentisand cannot exceed eight days without that consent. The legislation before us now would allow that to be extended to 29 days. It also amends section 72(b) of the 1991 Act to allow for the application itself to be for 29 days maximum without consent and for longer where there is consent. This is necessary because running to the courts every eight days to have an interim care order reviewed is understandably regarded as excessive by those who are directly impacted by it. It is not best practice and most certainly, and much to the fore of all our minds, disruptive for the care of the child in question.

Following the amendment of section 17(2) by the 2001 Act, the practice arose whereby interim care orders without consent were granted for a period of 28 days initially, with extensions of a further 28 days. Due to the President of the District Court, however, directing that a court cannot make such an order without consent concurrently, there is a need to legislate. If the Bill is enacted and all time periods under section 17(2) become 29 days, the proposed amendment form 28 to 29 days will facilitate applications for interim care orders, or extensions to them, being heard on the same day each week by the court.

I mentioned the children's referendum. It was noteworthy that during that campaign some people had genuine concerns about children in State care, something we all touched upon. The valid concerns that were expressed were understandable. Of course, and my memory has not been erased since, there was some deliberate scaremongering also. Those of us who advocated a "yes" vote argued that concern about children in State care was all the more reason to strengthen children's rights in the Constitution. The lesson from all the scandals of children in the horrendous institutions of the past was that their voices were not heard and they were largely invisible or made invisible to society. That must never be repeated. There is, of course, a responsibility on all of us, and most certainly on the Houses of the Oireachtas, for ongoing vigilance.

Today the problems are different, but no less serious for the individual children concerned. The lack of adequate social care for vulnerable children in the State must be put right, irrespective of the challenges of the current economic circumstances and resources. It is absolutely essential and must be corrected very soon. Resourcing of the new child and family support agency is crucial and I hope we will shortly see the publication of the facilitating legislation. I join Deputy Troy in asking the Minister to avail of the opportunity here today to give us an update on its expected presentation, something with which we are all anxious to proceed. I fully support the passage of this Bill and will facilitate its conclusion today.

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