Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and wish her every success in her work. With her experience and background she will make a major contribution to the overall development of social welfare services. I know from the short period I spent in that office that she has available to her the advice of some very professional personnel who have a detailed knowledge of the issues involved and how to deal with them. I reject any suggestion that the officers of the Department of Social and Family Affairs in any of the areas I have dealt with were callous and I have been a Member for over 30 years.

Perhaps one of the most innovative changes in the welfare area in recent years was the regionalisation of services. Information is now readily available in regional offices. I wish to record my appreciation of the work of the regional office in Ennis and the dedication of its personnel. The regional offices have taken a huge volume of work off Oireachtas Members because of the manner in which they deal with the general public. That is a welcome development.

I congratulate the Minister on extending the respite care grant which has been of enormous benefit to those who receive it. The Bill provides for additional finances for about 25,000 people. I pay tribute to the tremendous work done by the carer's organisation, the Soroptimists in Clare.

There are some areas in need of special attention which may be dealt with by the Minister who has some overall responsibility for certain of the activities of the Ministers of State and others with, for example, responsibility for children. There is a necessity to deal effectively with the children on the streets of this city who sleep rough. A few yards from the House, children of 12 and 13 years of age are on the streets seeking charity and assistance from passers-by. While this problem may impinge on other areas of responsibility under Departments, it is a serious issue and one that needs to be tackled. The Government took an initiative earlier in the year which indicated the problem would be removed from the streets, but it is not working successfully. The wealthiest cities of the world have failed to deal with this issue. I am not sure it is entirely related to contributions. The reality is that parents are in receipt of benefit for those children who are on the street with baskets and boxes seeking funding and sleeping rough. This issues needs to be tacked soon.

It is equally important to take care of the elderly in our community. In rural areas, old people still live in isolated houses without proper sanitary services and with poor facilities. I compliment the Department, the health boards and the local authorities on the work being done in providing for elderly disabled persons and elderly persons living alone, many of whom are without basic facilities and some have poor access to their homes. I ask to the Minister to look at this area because she has available to her, from her Department's records and the regional officers, information regarding the number and the location of elderly persons living alone in isolated areas. In some respects they suffer the disadvantage of not having available to them the basic requirements to live in decent comfort.