Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

It is not acceptable and we must implement the section of the legislation relating to the age of responsibility. There are reasons it has not yet been implemented, one of which is that the health boards claimed it would cost a substantial amount to implement. If one legislates that every person under the age of 12 who commits an act amounting to an offence has not committed an offence, one must decide who will look after this person. The Act envisaged that social workers would deal with these cases at all hours instead of the Garda Síochána. A substantial sum of money would be required to attend to these children and this sum must be validated.

I am satisfied I can make proposals to Government that will ensure the rapid implementation of an age of criminal responsibility. I do not want to anticipate the Government's decision. I agree with the headline figure of 12 years of age but there is a difficulty with serious offences committed by ten and 11 year olds. On rare occasions serious sexual crimes have been committed by 11 year olds. The public would not be satisfied that such an offender would be left to the attentions of a social worker. In the United Kingdom, the Bulger killing may not merit the word murder but manslaughter can be committed by 11 year olds. The Houses will be able to discuss this at a later stage as proposals are being brought before Government to ensure that the age of responsibility provisions are commenced. I am committed to doing this and the detail of that can be examined by the House.

I mentioned the work of the youth justice task force and the project team for this was established in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in October last year. The group made proposals that are before Government; it is important that the necessary funds are secured to implement the Act and that we make progress on clarifying where particular responsibilities lie.

Senator Tuffy mentioned Dr. Kilkelly's work and highlighted the importance of research in this area. The Department must have a youth justice division to enable us to carry out the basic fundamental research required in an important area such as this. It is a requirement of the legislation that parents should attend and we must examine the reason parents do not do so. I dealt with the question of the age of responsibility.

Senator O'Meara referred to rehabilitation in the widest sense and that is very much the philosophy of the Act. There has been an increase in the number of children taken into care, primarily due to neglect rather than abuse. There has been a large increase in our population. One of my major concerns as Minister of State is to ensure we have uniform standards in regard to who is taken into care. One of the difficulties with the health board system was that there was considerable divergence between different community care areas. One of the most startling figures in those statistics are the divergent numbers who have been taken into care in apparently similar geographical districts.

Senator Cummins rightly praised the work of the diversion officers and was concerned about the non-implementation of the 2001 Act. I agree with him that it must be implemented and I am committed to doing that. Senator Minihan also commented in that context.

Senator Henry touched on the area of child psychiatry, which strictly speaking does not arise under the legislation but is an issue the Senator rightly raised in this context. When Mr. Justice Kelly in a series of historic judgments required us to establish secure care units for "out of control" children, a great deal of investment was made in providing them, yet many of the behavioural problems with which those children present relate to issues in the child psychiatric service.

Senator Henry also raised the question of the reporting of family law proceedings. I understand that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has taken a legislative initiative in that regard and used powers under the courts legislation to provide for greater scrutiny and research in that area.