Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank the Technical Group for allowing me to avail of some of its speaking time. It is only right and proper to compliment the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, and her excellent staff on this momentous job of work. It has taken considerable resources to bring the Bill to fruition.

The Bill provides for the establishment of a body to be known as the child and family agency, the dissolution of the Family Support Agency and the National Educational Welfare Board and the transfer of the functions of those bodies to the child and family agency, and the transfer of certain functions of the Health Service Executive to the child and family agency. The establishment of the new agency is one of the largest and most ambitious public sector reforms being undertaken by the Government. It will involve bringing together 4,000 staff and a budget of more than €500 million from the three existing bodies.

I compliment the agencies that have done excellent work over the years, such as Barnados and the Children's Rights Alliance. As the Minister knows, a multitude of agencies do this excellent work. Much of that work may be remunerated, but a lot of it is unpaid work undertaken by people with jobs who work above and beyond the call of duty. They include child care workers and voluntary staff who put in long hours, including at weekends, for which they may never be paid. They do it, however, because they are interested in the health, welfare and protection of children.

Ms Maria Corbett, acting chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, says that this Bill is critical. It provides the legal foundation stone upon which the child and family agency will be built. Ms Corbett also stated: "We know our system is broken. This Bill must begin to fix this dysfunctional system." On a first reading, the Children's Rights Alliance welcomed many aspects of the Bill but it is concerned that it has not gone far enough to firmly ground the new agency in children's rights.

The Bill requires that the agency will have regard to the best interests of the child in all matters. While this provision is welcome, the alliance believes it should go further in order that the best interests of the child will be of paramount consideration in all aspects of the agency's work. This would better mirror the sentiments of the people who passed a referendum last November enshrining in law the principles of the best interests of children.

Under the terms of the Bill, the new agency is required to consult children when planning and reviewing its services. Its functions relate to two specific pieces of legislation: the Child Care Act 1991 and the Adoption Act 2010. The agency is required to hear and take into account the views of the child, but these provisions are not new. They already exist in law.

The Children's Rights Alliance believes that the Bill does not go far enough, because the new agency must listen to children on all matters affecting their lives. A child's right to have his or her views heard and taken on board must be clearly enshrined in the Bill. Within each damning report on child protection, the common thread has been that the child's view was invisible. This theme was central to the children's referendum.

Everyone knows the excellent work that has been done for a long period by Barnados. In that organisation's submission on this Bill, it was stated that services for children and families in Ireland have long been divided across departmental lines, particularly at national level. On the ground, services have developed in an ad hoc manner responding to local needs without a comprehensive national framework that helps to join the dots. Children and families engage with a myriad of services across Ireland, but the division of such services, which often target many of the same children and families, has led to their fragmented provision. That fails to put the child at the centre of such work.

We have all heard horror stories where different agencies were contacted by children who were in danger or living in an unhealthy environment. For one reason or another, those families slipped between the cracks and, thus, children were left in unsafe and unhealthy places. Those cases only came to light after many years. I will not go into specific cases but they were all national news when they came out. It would not be proper to name them here, however.

We must ensure that in future those types of cases never recur. Children today and in future must be assured that their health, happiness, opinions and rights are of paramount importance to every politician in the land. The Minister deserves support for her work in introducing the Bill before us, which will help to protect children in future. I support what she is trying to achieve. I appreciate that agencies might have differing views on certain aspects of the legislation but, overall, people have broadly welcomed its provisions.

In discussing the well-being of schoolchildren, however, there are other aspects of Government policy that I would not agree with. These include bigger class sizes and the reduction in careers guidance counsellors. Such matters leave children vulnerable because their education and welfare may be neglected as a result. In the past, we could always rely on careers guidance councillors to spot a young person who was off form. They would take them under their wing and perhaps find out what was wrong at home. Unfortunately, such counsellors are now engaged in full-time classes due to the cuts. Those cuts were dangerous and it would be a horrible thing if we were to lose one child due to such cutbacks. None of us would want to condone such cuts.

I was not being political previously when I raised the reduction in the number of careers guidance counsellors. Many people might think that such counsellors are only trying to steer children towards certain careers and advise them on third level courses. They did such work but they also used their time intelligently to nurture the welfare of young students.

People might say that in some ways children today are better off than we were, but I do not think so because they are facing a multitude of problems that we did not have to cope with.

Children are being abused and bullied online via computers and other devices, which we did not have when we were young, and drugs are now freely available to them. They are living in a completely different time and are faced with problems which did not arise even a few short years ago. It is of paramount importance that everything is done to put the child at the centre of everything.

I support the Minister in terms of the important work she is doing in this area. While I am quick to criticise anything with which I am not happy, I am always willing to compliment good work. The Minister and her staff have the best interests of young people at heart. Pulling everything together can only lead to the better delivery of services for young people.

I again thank the Technical Group for sharing time with me.

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