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

I assure the Deputy that a very significant amount of work has been done with regard to Children First and the agency, and this work is ongoing.

Those are two priority Bills for us and we are working on them. I have already explained that I am linking with the Department of Justice and Equality on the Children First legislation and ensuring coherence between the Vetting Bill and the Children First legislation. There are many issues involved including asking organisations to have complex responses on how to be ready to implement Children First on a statutory basis. For example, the question has arisen about the size of the organisation that will have to fulfil those conditions. It has taken an awful lot of work to begin to tease that out.

My own office has been in contact with Deputy Troy and Deputy Ó Caoláin to offer consultation and I am happy to include the Children First legislation in that consultation. We will be discussing it on Friday also.

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