Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is appropriate that the Tánaiste is taking my question because she was instrumental in the holding of the children's rights referendum and ensuring the rights of children were inserted into the Constitution when she was Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. After 12 homeless families, including 30 children, had been sent to Garda stations last week in Dublin - there were reports that at least one of them may have slept in a park - Mr. Mike Allen of Focus Ireland pointed out on "Morning Ireland" that there was no legislative framework in place to look after the rights of children when their families were homeless. This morning I published a Bill on behalf of the Labour Party to address that issue, but I want to ask the Minister if the Government has plans to bring forward legislation to ensure that, when local authorities are presented with a homeless family, the children will not just be treated as dependants of somebody who is homeless, that their rights will be protected.

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