John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and this opportunity to speak on it. We support the principle of this long-delayed and much-promised Bill which formally establishes the child and family agency. I noticed when reading the Bill only two sections deal with the interests of children while six or eight sections deal with the role of the agency's chief executive officer, which surprises me.

The Bill will establish once and for all a unified approach to dealing with children's services. Up to now we have had a fragmented approach. During my time in the House we have had the introduction of the free preschool year, the establishment of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Ombudsman for Children, a children's services policy, legislation introduced in 2001 and 2009, a review of the Children First guidelines, an independent review group on child deaths, and the Ryan report, the Monageer report and the Kilkenny incest report. While we have had all of these it is still true to say a very fragmented service has been provided, in particular by the HSE.

Will the Minister clarify the situation regarding weekend services for child welfare? Child welfare issues do not conclude on Friday evening. In Wexford we have had the Dunne and Grace cases, which were terrible situations where young children died unnecessarily. From dealing on a day-to-day basis with cases, I am of the view it is very difficult to access services at the weekend. How does the agency intend to deal with this issue? Will the Minister outline her position on this area when she replies?

With regard to child welfare, I am greatly concerned about court services because in my opinion they are a total disaster. Families tell me they spend days in court as many cases are not heard but adjourned. Families sit there all day for one or two days, with no communication from legal people, the judge or his or her support services, and more often than not coming towards the end of the evening the cases are adjourned for a month or two. Families feel such delays are not good enough and more priority should be given to dealing with a case on the day it comes before the court. With the Minister seriously consider this?

When I hear about a child welfare concern the first person with whom I make contact is the public health nurse, who usually takes on the case at that point. Why are public health nurses excluded? I ask the Minister to re-examine this before Committee Stage. The public health nurse is a very important person with regard to child welfare, and I am sure the Acting Chairman, Deputy Liam Twomey, would agree. On many occasions I have contacted local GPs when confronted with concerns about child welfare. It is very difficult to access HSE services after hours and I hope this will change. I am concerned about the exclusion of public health nurses.

Speech and language therapies are also not included and concern has been expressed about this. This needs to be dealt with and all Deputies would agree the speech and language services available in most counties are practically nil or there is a two or three year delay. Concern has been expressed to me that hospital social workers are not included either. They are very important because in some cases children end up in hospital and the social worker there becomes involved. I am concerned about their exclusion and I ask the Minister to examine this. I am particularly concerned about the exclusion of public health nurses and hospital social workers because they are very important components in dealing with child welfare issues.

I welcome the fact the new agency will take over the inspection of child care services. The scenes in the "Prime Time" programme on RTE were very disturbing. We believe the inspection regime must be stepped up to ensure compliance with the regulations to be put in place. The current inspection regime is clearly inadequate. We also believe there must be renewed emphasis on staff quality in the sector. Parents need to know their children will be treated respectfully and that staff have the required training and capability to deal with children. We also want to see the introduction of fines where regulations are breached. Calls have been made on all sides of the House that the Government should consider withdrawing any grants paid to child care facilities which were completely flouting the law. In recent weeks we have heard approximately 22 child care providers in Mayo were not up to the standards required by the HSE. Many providers fail to provide rest areas for children and also fall down when it comes to hand-washing standards by providing cotton towels which can spread disease as opposed to disposable paper towels. The agency needs to deal with such issues.

The agency itself has an important role to play in the future. I hope that when the agency is set up it will be broadly based, representative and composed of people with experience in the relevant areas and that we will not have political appointments of people without the required experience to run the agency. I am confident the Minister will ensure that will happen.

The 4,000 staff are very important. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Twomey, would agree that they must be spread adequately around the country because there seems to be a lack of staff in certain areas while there are more than adequate staff in other areas dealing with child welfare. The Minister must ensure that staff and finances are spread evenly and that every constituency and area gets an adequate allocation of both.

Could the Minister indicate what role the agency will have in progressing disability services for children? Services for children with disabilities are very important and they must be delivered evenly across the board. There are excellent disability services in some counties. In Wexford there is the St. John of God House, Foley House, St. Patrick’s special school and community workshops which provide facilities for people with disabilities. In other parts of the country there is a distinct lack of services for people with disabilities. What role will the agency have in providing services and facilities for children with disabilities and ensuring that the welfare of children with disabilities is adequately addressed? At present that is not the case in some parts of the country and it is important that every child would have proper facilities. I am sure the Minister comes across inadequate services for people with disabilities.

I welcome the setting up of the agency. I am confident the Minister will ensure that the agency is capable of working adequately. I support other Deputies who have referred to agencies and bodies set up by previous Governments. When the HSE, the National Roads Authority and other bodies were set up by the previous Government one could not get a response to a parliamentary question about them. The Minister always replied that it was a matter for the agency concerned. I hope that when Members have concerns they will be able to table a question to the Minister and get an adequate response-----

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