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

The Deputy rightly highlighted one of the issues that he and I know is serious and that the Ombudsman has also highlighted. We also read about it in the child death report, that being, agencies failing to co-operate and share information. That failure has emerged again in this report.

To encourage agencies in this regard, I will build into the legislation that I will introduce shortly on the child and family agency a duty to share information and co-operate. This statutory provision will apply to all agencies that are involved in sharing information on and delivering services for children. It will encourage and support best practice in terms of co-operation.

I was concerned by the issue of housing as it affects children in care, an issue raised by the Deputy. The Ombudsman described a catch-22 situation in her report, that being, a housing Department not being alert to the issue and needing to take it into consideration when deciding whether a family was eligible for housing. I will raise the matter with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and try to ensure that housing policy takes account of children in care so that, when they return home, the child and family agency's plans to rehabilitate them are included when assessing the family's accommodation needs. Similar issues arise for action in respect of other Departments.

The Deputy mentioned the Department of Education and Skills. It is interesting that many of the complaints received by the office were relevant to education, and many of those related to bullying. The Government action plan on bullying, launched by the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and I, goes quite a way towards addressing the issues raised in the report and allowing schools to take them more seriously.

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