Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has a dedicated Department. In the two and a half years since that Department has been in existence, no legislation, apart from a technical Bill relating to an amendment to the Child Care Act, has come before this House. I am not putting any targets on the Minister. These are her own targets, not mine or anybody else's, and she has failed to deliver on them. I agree we have Children First guidelines but the Minister, Members on all sides of the House and I acknowledge the need to put them on a statutory footing. Once again, the Minister is unable to give a definitive timeframe as to when this will come before the House. I have said before and will say again that we are here to help and facilitate the passage of this legislation in any way we can just as we supported the passage of the children's referendum and the Minister's reform agenda on the child and family support agency. However, she is at the helm, it is her Department and we want to know when we can expect to see this legislation before the House.

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