Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

All of us in this Chamber share a deep sense of duty to our children. With this in mind I welcome the tabling of this motion by the members, the gentlemen of the Labour Party. The Government's actions and commitment is reflected in the countermotion.

We must invest if we want to deliver for our children. In the case of my Department, the gross funding being made available in 2019 is a little over €1.5 billion. The Deputy suggested I would refer to that. Many Deputies will be aware of our radical new approach to childcare. A 117% increase in investment since 2015 has seen the families of 84,000 children getting extra supports. This year's €574 million investment brings us to a new milestone, that is, the affordable childcare scheme, to which one of the Deputies referred at length.

We are using the opportunity to deliver more benefits. Changes in thresholds will see an estimated 7,500 more children benefit from the scheme, while over 40,000 other children who are already eligible will get extra.

Getting us to this point has been a major task. New laws were needed as well as one of the most complex information technology projects undertaken by Government in recent years. We are building a childcare infrastructure that will last for generations. I will directly answer the Deputy's question. During my last set of meetings with my officials, we discussed how we are on target in respect of the 2019 hoped-for full implementation.

As Minister, I am honoured to have been able to bring the budget for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, past €750 million for the first time ever. This supports care and social workers who are transforming lives in our communities every day. I have seen this work at first hand. It also allowed us to end the 20 years of debate across five Governments to make mandatory reporting a reality, something demanded by children's rights experts and campaigners. Of course the demands are big and must be responded to. Only two weeks ago I was delighted to join Tusla and the HSE to launch a new training resource that gives front-line teams the skills to identify hidden harm. This important initiative will ensure care, social and addiction workers can respond when the behaviour of addicted parents impacts on children. An estimated 600,000 children are at risk in our country.

The spirit and specifics of the Labour Party motion are responded to comprehensively in the recent publication of the First 5 strategy.

For the first time ever there is a ten-year plan to improve the lives of babies, very young children and their families. The Department of Health will develop a dedicated child health workforce. The Departments of Justice and Equality and of Employment Affairs and Social Protection will have initiatives to support parents to balance working and caring responsibilities. This is an exciting time and I look forward to giving an update and an implementation plan after Easter.

Where children are homeless, my Department works closely with Tusla to provide supports. Tusla provides spaces where homeless children and families can avail of services in a safe, warm, welcoming space and where they feel comfortable and respected, and therefore mitigates some of the impact of being in the settings to which the Deputy referred. Funding is now available to approved housing bodies to acquire accommodation for young people leaving State care under the capital assistance scheme, CAS, operated by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. At the end of December 2018, a total of 50 properties had been acquired under CAS. Thirty units have been sold, 20 units are at sale agreed and ten young people have been housed. These figures will increase in 2019. The Government is determined to increase the stock of social housing by 50,000 homes by 2021 under Rebuilding Ireland, with money ring-fenced to achieve this. There is a 25% increase in the current spending budget for the provision of homeless services, bringing the total for 2019 to €146 million. In addition, €60 million in capital funding was provided in 2018 to allow for development of further homeless facilities including family hubs.

The Government already has a strategy in place to deal with child poverty. Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures includes a target that the number of children in consistent poverty in 2011 be reduced by two thirds by 2020. At a meeting with the advisory council this morning, we discussed how we can continue to move towards that goal in an increasingly ambitious manner. A whole-of-Government approach to tackling child poverty is being adopted, building on the lifecycle approach in the national action plan for social inclusion and informed by the European Commission's recommendation on investing in children and breaking the cycle of disadvantage.

I am committed to progressing the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 to Committee Stage in Seanad Éireann as quickly as possible. This legislation provides adopted people and other relevant people with statutory rights to information and to a tracing service. It also protects relevant records by bringing them into the custody of the Adoption Authority of Ireland. The Bill seeks to balance the rights to identity and to privacy. I continue to actively explore all options to facilitate the release of as much information as possible to adopted and other relevant persons and will introduce any necessary amendments on Committee Stage. In light of my very intensive negotiations with the Attorney General and his office, I anticipate that I will table improved recommendations and amendments on Committee Stage.

Parents need support. The increasing focus on parenting has developed in a somewhat fragmented way across Departments and State agencies. This is why in November 2018, my Department established a dedicated parenting support policy unit, to help realise the State’s duty in supporting parents by leading out on the important work of co-ordinating policy direction and activity relating to parenting support. The new parenting support policy unit will collaborate with others to streamline and improve existing parenting supports to ensure that all parents are supported to parent confidently and positively.

The Adoptive Leave Act 1995 provides for an entitlement to 24 weeks adoptive leave for an employed adopting mother or a sole male adopter. The Department of Justice and Equality identified a lacuna in the Act that prevents male same-sex married couples from availing of adoptive leave and benefits. They have prepared draft legislative proposals to amend the Act to afford the same entitlements to adoptive leave and benefits to all couples who are married, co-habiting or who are in a civil partnership, irrespective of gender. These amendments will be included alongside legislative provisions to introduce a new paid parental leave scheme announced as part of budget 2019. It is expected the legislation will be progressed this year.

The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, is also concerned that the issue of parenting rights for same-sex couples should be addressed speedily, as am I. To this end, the Government has approved the preparation of the civil registration Bill 2019. Commencement of these amendments is also dependent on commencement of Parts 2 and 3 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015. The Minister for Health intends that these provisions will be commenced as soon as possible.

Deputy Howlin raised the matter of citizenship. The motion seeks to introduce new rules to provide for citizenship by naturalisation of all children born and raised in Ireland irrespective of the nationality or migration status of their parents. This proposes to change existing citizenship legislation including the changes introduced following the 27th amendment to the Constitution. Existing citizenship laws have been carefully calibrated. Ireland, in most cases, adopts less onerous requirements than many other member states. Ireland confers citizenship to a child born on the island of Ireland if one or other of its parents has been lawfully resident on the island of Ireland for three out of the last four years. Any changes, as outlined in this motion, to citizenship laws must be carefully considered. Since 2010, just over 27,000 children, the vast majority of whom were born to non-EEA nationals, have become citizens of Ireland through naturalisation.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, wants to give parents a strong voice in ensuring school costs are kept to a minimum. He intends to ask schools to develop a parent and student charter. It is intended that every school will be required to set out a financial statement. The Deputy has mentioned the many changes that have been made to GP care

I hope it is clear to the House that the Government is pursuing a broad-based, ambitious and necessary strategy, underpinned by actions, to ensure that our children receive the very best of services and the very best start in life; a fair start that they deserve and nothing less.

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