Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I refer to declarations of eligibility and suitability, about which I commented in the media. Section 37(3) states:

(3) As soon as practicable after the Health Service Executive receives an application under subsection (1), the Health Service Executive shall take the following steps concerning the adoption proposed under the separate application referred to in subsection (2)(b) or arrange for the steps to be taken by an accredited body ... (b) carrying out an assessment of eligibility and suitability in relation to the applicants[.]

That is permitted in the Bill. Nevertheless, that does not address the problem that we must set up an appropriate body and give it the appropriate powers to do the declaration of assessment. This is concerned with the assessment of eligibility and suitability, and that remains to be done. I have undertaken to speak with the associations, with the advice of the Attorney General, to determine what we can do within that section. It is to do with the eligibility and the assessment. As I said, it is not fair to have a prolonged system of assessment that creates stresses in families. Equally, even if it was foreshortened, it does not mean that stresses will not be caused by this process, because it is stressful. I have met couples who have been through assessments other than by the Health Service Executive who find it stressful. It can create stresses in marriages and relationships. We have to remove that part that is unnecessarily prolonged because of bureaucracy. That is my determination.

On the issues raised about child protection, when I was appointed Minister of State I said child protection would be my priority, and it has been my priority. In the past year we have made significant progress in developing structures, changes and reforms in the area, including announcements I made in recent weeks. In the first instance the HSE has agreed to appoint an individual who will be solely responsible for children and families. That is the first time that has happened nationally in our health services structure. For the first time we will have somebody who will parallel, on an implementation level, the policy responsibility that I and the Office of the Minister for Children has had since it was set up to underline our commitment to this area as a Government.

We have also set up a task force to address the legacy of the former health boards whereby referrals are done in a different way in different health board areas. They have passed down through the local health offices and we have now almost completed a process of standardisation which will ensure we will have a single national way of referring, assessing risk and determining waiting lists. In that way we will know where the problems are - I recognise problems exist and I would not have set it as a priority if they did not - and allocate resources accordingly. We will be able to understand where the gaps are. We also need to bring this into the information technology era to ensure we have a data bank of resources.

Senator Mary White hit the nail on the head. There has been much mention of out -of-hours resources in regard to Monageer. That was the key finding. It has been acknowledged, however, that an out-of-hours service probably would not have saved the lives of that tragic family but what is also recommended in the report is better co-ordination among agencies. That is why I believe that if we standardise the way the different heath offices work in terms of child protection and give them the facility to share the information using technology, there is a possibility that at any one time we can X-ray the system to see where children are at risk, where the numbers are greatest and where the resource allocations need to be reconsidered.

I was also pleased to announce that social workers are exempt from the recruitment embargo in the HSE.