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

As Deputy Bríd Smith will be aware, a decision was taken by the previous Government not to increase the sum paid for adults but to increase the sum paid for children. In the Department of Education and Skills, the former Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, made the decision about children moving on to third level. It is a small number, but that decision was taken to ensure that children in direct provision could access third level places as well. There were also the other changes which I have spoken about.

As I said at the beginning, we want to provide as high a level of service to persons who are awaiting assessment as we can. A number of centres have been closed. Every effort is being made to improve the standards of accommodation. It is a serious issue. We discussed it again with the NGOs, the representatives of which attended last week, as I stated.

There are child protection policies and child support policies in place. We clearly want to ensure that the centres meet international human rights standards. I certainly want to ensure that is the case. I recently agreed that the Ombudsman for Children would have a role in relation to direct provision and that has been widely welcomed. That ensures that there now is an independent person - there are also inspections - who can also make recommendations of changes he or she considers necessary.

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