Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions. Regarding the report of the Joint Committee on Autism, I thank its members, including its Chair, Senator Carrigy. I intend to meet him one to one in the next couple of weeks to sit down, go through all of the recommendations and identify which ones we can make progress on quickly.

The “no wrong door” principle is a good one. How we achieve that, though, is not straightforward. When meeting families in Barnardo’s in Blanchardstown recently, there was a common thread to a lot of what they said to me - they got great help and great support in the end, but it was a tortuous road to find the right place and the right people to give them the support they needed. That stuck with me.

In terms of the targets for success of the new child poverty and well-being unit, we have identified a number of priority areas. We want, and I will ensure, that there is a strong child poverty and well-being theme in the budget in October. The areas we are going to prioritise are income supports, joblessness, early learning and childcare, further reducing the cost of education, family homelessness, consolidating and integrating family and parental support, health and well-being, and enhancing participation in culture, arts and sport for all children and young people, including those affected by poverty. We believe that investment in these areas will reduce child poverty and raise well-being. Increasing income supports and helping to reduce joblessness will boost incomes for poorer families. Support for early learning and childcare will facilitate parental employment by reducing the cost of such care. Reducing the cost of education will play a role in reducing outgoings for families with children. I am very pleased that free schoolbooks in primary schools will be a reality in September. That is just one example, as is the extension of the hot school meals programme.

Work has already been carried out in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to identify the amount of its expenditure that is dedicated to children. The methodology developed through this work is now being extended to six other Departments with a high level of expenditure benefiting children. These are the Departments of Education, Health, Social Protection, Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Justice, and Rural and Community Development. That work will represent a solid basis for further progress when it comes to establishing the total amount of expenditure dedicated to children and its positive effects. As I said earlier, I intend that budget 2024 will have child poverty and well-being as one of its major themes.

Regarding human trafficking, which was raised by Deputy Tóibín, I want to acknowledge that human trafficking happens in Ireland. We have specific legislation around it. We do not have the boats arriving in the way they do in Britain, southern Europe and other places, but one does not need a boat to engage in human trafficking in Ireland. It is done in other ways. It is very hard to measure, of course, because it largely involves criminal activity and, therefore, has to be detected.

I do want to comment, though, on the recent study by UCD, which makes for disturbing reading, on sexual predators targeting children in care. I want to say very clearly that no child should be at risk of exploitation. The work to raise awareness and tackle child exploitation is a priority for the Government. It is a very valuable study, which, as the authors point out, is not a prevalence study, but a qualitative study drawing on 21 interviews with practitioners as well as consultations with staff in the Garda and Tusla. It does not seek to quantify the extent to which this occurs in Ireland.

The authors suggest that the research should be understood as a scoping study that takes an initial and important first step that is hoped will provide awareness of sexual exploitation of children and young people in Ireland. Their aim is for the study to inform future research as well as policy and practice recommendations.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is working closely with senior management in Tusla on the subject of child sexual exploitation and will prioritise a review of the findings of this scoping study and its recommendations for further action. A close liaison into the study's findings will also take place by Tusla with An Garda Síochána.

Significant advances have been made in recent times to crack down on child sexual exploitation. In 2021, for example, Tusla implemented its new child exploitation procedure in partnership with An Garda Síochána to assist Tusla staff in recognising and reporting cases where there may well be a risk of child exploitation for sexual purposes. The joint working protocol between Tusla and An Garda Síochána forms a critical part of the responses to child abuse and neglect, particularly in relation to child sexual exploitation. In addition to this, Tusla has a full-time seconded principal social worker assigned and based in the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, GNPSB, and has established an anti-trafficking working group in readiness for the Department of Justice's national action plan to prevent and combat trafficking of human beings, which includes the area of child exploitation.

At all times, training and practices in relation to tackling child sexual exploitation are under review, and as part of this, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will prioritise a review of the findings of this scoping study and its recommendations in the immediate period ahead.

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