Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister's work and congratulate her on the successful passage of the establishing legislation for the new child and family agency. The Bill has been a long time in gestation and, having gone through this House, it will now go to the Seanad. This is a very important, if not historic - an often abused term - development in the context of the State's role vis-à-vis the care of children and the provision of protection for them in all situations and settings. I hope the agency will represent, as I have said on a number of occasions, a new beginning. It certainly has the potential to be that. The Minister has selected fine people to work at its helm. I wish the new chairperson of the board, Ms Norah Gibbons, and her team in service on that board every success in the years ahead. I also extend, unhesitatingly, my good wishes to the CEO designate, Mr. Gordon Jeyes, and the team who will work with him at the helm of the new agency. I wish them every success with all they have to face. I hope that those who are transferring to the new agency from a variety of different settings will find their future employment personally fulfilling and rewarding because of the very important area that they are entrusted to address, serve and provide for. So much rests on their best performance and their adherence to the highest standards that not only we as political voices but Irish society generally would wish to see in this new beginning. I wish everyone who will work within the new agency every success. I hope they will have a very personally rewarding future because of the very special area in which they will work. I also commend my colleagues on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children and the Chairman, Deputy Jerry Buttimer, on the approach taken to this and related matters in the last number of years.

I wish to appeal to the Minister with regard to a number of outstanding issues of concern in particular areas. The Family Resource Centre National Forum has written to the Minister regarding section 72 of the Bill and the transfer of powers. It is particularly concerned about the provision that relates to the National Education Welfare Board but not to all of the elements that have been, heretofore, under the control and aegis of the Family Support Agency. There are small outstanding areas of uncertainty that will require more than a written response. I have engaged with the Minister and with colleagues in her Department on this matter. Indeed, it is a matter on which we had a fairly feisty exchange during the course of the Committee Stage debate. We took the time to sit down, go through it and arrive at an understanding of the why and the what of her approach. I recommend that the Minister adopt the same accessible approach to those who continue to have concerns and doubts in that regard. To meet and sit down with people is the way to overcome their genuine concerns.

I wish the Minister continued success in her role as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. In the two and a half years she has been in that role, she has proven to be a very effective Minister and a very fine choice for the role that has been entrusted to her by the Taoiseach and her Cabinet colleagues.

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