Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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7. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on the Ombudsman for Children's annual report for 2012. [32596/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Ombudsman for Children is an independent officer of the State and accounts for her statutory functions to the Oireachtas. She performs a very valuable ongoing role in advancing the rights and welfare of children in Ireland since her appointment to that role in 2003. As well as investigating individual complaints she also makes contributions to Oireachtas committees, provides advices to Government on legislation, policy and practices and raises public awareness of issues impacting on the lives of children and families. I acknowledge her support in terms of developing legislation. Her office was involved in the consultations I have held on Children First and the development of the new agency, among other aspects of legislation.

I welcome the launch of the Ombudsman for Children's annual report and note the contents. She was a big supporter of the children's rights referendum, as were Deputy Ó Caoláin and his party. The Government is committed to putting the rights and welfare of children at the centre of our policy and to ensure the services delivered to children are adequate and well organised.

The number of complaints dealt with by the Ombudsman in 2012 was 1,465 and related to a range of departmental areas, those being, education, health, finance, welfare, justice, housing-planning and others. Therefore, it is a matter for each Minister, including myself, together with our respective Departments, to consider the issues raised by Ms Logan not only in her reports to the Oireachtas, but also on an ongoing basis.

I meet Ms Logan regularly to ask for input into legislation and to discuss issues. We respond to each of the reports and liaise with other Departments to get their responses to the issues raised. A number of the issues raised this year and in previous reports have been dealt with by various Departments and responses have been provided to the Ombudsman.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister will have noted from the Ombudsman's report, two Departments constitute more than 80% of the cases brought to her attention - 43% at the Department of Education and Skills and 39% at the Department of Health. These are the main Departments.

However, I wish to focus on the Ombudsman's comments on public bodies. Her report shows that certain public bodies have demonstrated a failure to consider children's best interests in making decisions about children and families. She also instanced situations in which there was a significant lack of co-operation between State-funded public bodies. As a consequence, children and families did not receive the necessary supports and services. For example, local authorities did not provide suitable housing despite HSE recommendations, mental health services were not provided to children in care who were relocated because local offices could not agree on whose area of responsibility it was and children needed to remain in hospital despite the fact that medical advice had indicated that they could be cared for at home.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I will call the Deputy for a further supplementary question, but I must call the Minister now.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I will leave it at that. How does the Minister intend to address these significant deficiencies at public body and local authority level? Can her Department insist on the employment of best practice where a child's needs are concerned?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy rightly highlighted one of the issues that he and I know is serious and that the Ombudsman has also highlighted. We also read about it in the child death report, that being, agencies failing to co-operate and share information. That failure has emerged again in this report.

To encourage agencies in this regard, I will build into the legislation that I will introduce shortly on the child and family agency a duty to share information and co-operate. This statutory provision will apply to all agencies that are involved in sharing information on and delivering services for children. It will encourage and support best practice in terms of co-operation.

I was concerned by the issue of housing as it affects children in care, an issue raised by the Deputy. The Ombudsman described a catch-22 situation in her report, that being, a housing Department not being alert to the issue and needing to take it into consideration when deciding whether a family was eligible for housing. I will raise the matter with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and try to ensure that housing policy takes account of children in care so that, when they return home, the child and family agency's plans to rehabilitate them are included when assessing the family's accommodation needs. Similar issues arise for action in respect of other Departments.

The Deputy mentioned the Department of Education and Skills. It is interesting that many of the complaints received by the office were relevant to education, and many of those related to bullying. The Government action plan on bullying, launched by the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and I, goes quite a way towards addressing the issues raised in the report and allowing schools to take them more seriously.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I want to make progress, as other Deputies wish to ask their questions.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Recently, the Minister and I discussed the issue of children. The traditional attitude of Departments has almost been that of silo entities. The needs of children cross a number of Departments. I have always hoped, and still have every confidence, that the Minister will ensure that her Department is an overarching instrument of oversight to ensure that this type of attitude is not replicated in other public bodies and local authorities. Full co-operation is necessary. The traditional silo approach must be set aside. That all of these entities have a critical role to play in determining that the needs of children are met must be recognised. I assure the Minister of my full support in the pursuit of this.

We will probably address this issue again. After time has lapsed, will the Minister provide an update on the progress made in respect of the matters highlighted by the Ombudsman for Children?

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Was that a question?

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Yes. Will the Minister confirm whether she would be happy to address these matters in an ongoing review?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I referred to a cross-departmental implementation plan for Children First. Further discussion would illuminate some of the areas in which co-operation can occur.