Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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3. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs with the launch of the new 116000 number, the number of calls that have been received to date; the amount spent on advertising the line; where this advertising has been targeted; the number of countries that have an operational 116000 service; if long term funding is now in place for the continuance of the service; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32670/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the launch of the 116000 missing children hotline in Ireland which is being funded by my Department together with the EU. The 116000 missing children hotline is an EU-wide initiative designed to provide a single point of contact across the European Union for missing children and their families. The number is currently operational in 23 EU countries and the number has been allocated and is soon to be operational in a further four countries, including Croatia, the newest EU member state. In Ireland the service is operated by the ISPCC. I thank it for the work it has done on this. We have provided it with funding to establish this hotline.

It is now available 24 hours a day as a support for families in a dreadful position and also for children who are in a position to use it. Funding is provided through the Daphne funding system and the service is overseen by a cross-sectoral project team chaired by my Department. My Department provided €50,000 in 2012 to support the Irish Society for Protection of Cruelty to Children, ISPCC, in establishing the hotline and €88,000 this year. The funding received from both the EU Daphne project and my Department included the establishment costs and national promotion and advertisement of the service. In common with all Exchequer funding, requirements for the operation of the service in future years will be considered in the context of the usual Estimates process. We give very serious funding to the ISPCC in order for it to deliver the range of services it does so effectively.

The missing children hotline has been operating on a limited hours pilot basis in Ireland since December 2012 and on a full-time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week basis since April this year. The service was officially launched on 7 June and as it has been operating only for a very short period, reliable data on calls is not available at this time. Any available data at this point will necessarily include a substantial volume of test calls by groups such as the ISPCC, my own Department and others. We will have robust and more accurate data on calls to the service in the next quarter and after that on a quarterly basis. It is important to see how many children or family members are calling the service, and the ISPCC will provide that data on a quarterly basis.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

A key component of the service is a successful awareness programme. It is vital that those who could benefit from the service know that it exists and that users are aware of the scope of the service. During the initial set-up phase of the service, the ISPCC focused on community-based promotion of the service, and this included presentations to local community groups. Posters, flyers and business cards have been distributed to all Garda stations from Garda headquarters, and promotional material has been distributed to a variety of community-based projects in various locations throughout the country. Furthermore, the ISPCC has made extensive use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise this service on an ongoing basis. The successful launch of the service on 7 June 2013 also provided the opportunity to further promote the service.

The 116000 missing children hotline website, www.missingchildrenhotline.ie, has also been launched to promote the service. To date, €35,000 has been spent on awareness measures and this amount will be doubled for further awareness measures in the remainder of 2013. It is important to note that the 116000 number is not an emergency number. Emergency calls should always be directed to the 999 or 112 number in the first instance, where the relevant emergency responses, including the recently launched Garda missing children amber alert mechanism, may be activated. The establishment of the 116000 line will, however, be of valuable support and assistance to families of missing children and to missing children themselves.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We all welcome the introduction of the hotline number and many people have sought its introduction for a long time. I particularly mention Mr. Tom Brown, who has campaigned for a long time since his sister went missing.

The Minister indicated that the hotline would be used in 23 countries. There seems to be a problem with Finland. What is happening in that regard? The report of the third annual conference on missing children indicates that for the process to be effective across Europe, all countries must be involved. There are 250,000 children missing throughout the EU member states. I am also concerned about advertising and getting the number out there. What is being targeted in that respect? Are we looking to get the number into airports or perhaps getting it on the RTE news once a month? A lack of public awareness of the 116000 number was mentioned during the conference I attended.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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During the initial set-up of the hotline, the ISPCC focused on community-based promotion of the service, holding many presentations for local community groups and producing posters, flyers and business cards for distribution to all Garda stations from headquarters. The Garda has been very co-operative in the development of this hotline and many businesses have also been informed. The ISPCC has used social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to advertise the service on an ongoing basis. When the service was launched there was much promotion, but if any businesses or media outlets want to offer support to the promotion of this hotline, I invite them to do so. It is a very important service. The Deputy mentioned airports and perhaps we could get some support from the airport authorities, so I will raise it with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, and see if we can take the initiative in that regard. We must ensure people are alert to the fact that the missing children hotline number is available and should be used by people if they have information or need support.

I attended the launch of the child helpline in Brussels two weeks ago which brought together data from European countries. It is extraordinary that there have been 58 million calls to European child helplines over ten years from children, with 3 million calls from children regarding violence and abuse, primarily at the hands of family members. These are really disturbing statistics. The top concern in calls made by children was mental health, at 18% of calls, with abuse and violence also at 18%. Peer relationships were the subject of 15% of calls and bullying featured quite strongly also. There is a real need to gather the data from these helplines, although they are not all concerned with missing children; they are the general helplines that children can use in all member states. Children are using them and we must ensure we build bridges between those helplines and national services so we can respond to the concerns that children have. There are new and emerging issues, such as cyber-bullying, which also featured quite strongly in the calls to hotlines. There is much information about concerns of children and we must act on that.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is the benefit of a hotline number, as the data can tell us what is happening on the ground. A point was made by Ms Delphine Moralis, the secretary general of Missing Children Europe, indicating that the response rate in 15 member states is 1%, but in Italy and Belgium, where the number is best known, the response rates are 6% and 4% respectively. This relates to promotion of the number. We should work with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to promote it on all transport modes, including buses, trains, airports and motorways. Those are the lines along which children would move if on their own or abducted. The Minister did not really answer the question about Finland.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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It is surprising that Finland, a very child-centred country which has good services for children, does not operate the hotline. I understand initiatives are being taken to ensure all member states will have the hotline.

This 116000 number is not an emergency contact. If there is an emergency, people should contact 999. It is a support and alert service for children who are in a position to use it. It is worth noting that the Childline service, which is operated by the ISPCC, has a high number of calls in comparison with its European counterparts. One could have another debate on why that is so and the issues that children feel they need to raise.