Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I stand over my comments. Let us not be overly sensitive. A member of the Senator's party said something in the Lower House about this report. If we cannot discuss such things, we cannot have a full debate. Let us stick to what has been said in public and be honest about it. If we cannot comment for the reasons suggested, we would be overly constrained. My original point was worth highlighting.

Senator Walsh stated that familicide, the killing of an entire family, is a growing problem. This is true. Research shows that approximately 90% of cases are not preventable. It is a stark and challenging statistic that gives social workers no consolation, comfort or cause for complacency. The report refers to the family's isolation, which is also true, since it was moving all the time, but improvements have been made. There is an exciting pilot scheme in Wexford and Dún Laoghaire, where the Cluain Mhuire service is trying to educate the areas' health professionals to detect incidents of psychosis in young people and others. The current opinion is that detecting it earlier will avoid unhappy consequences. This scheme, one of several developments in mental health services since then in Wexford, is welcome.

Regarding Senator Regan's comments, the inquiry was independent. The suggestion that influence was brought to bear on the committee in conducting the inquiry is not well grounded. I stress that the committee conducted its affairs independently.

I welcome the opportunity provided by the House to reflect on the publication of the report of the Monageer inquiry. It has been a difficult and emotional time for the families concerned and I wish to convey the sympathies of the Government and the House to the families on the tragic losses of their loved ones.

In the first instance, I would like to state that it was always my intention to publish as much of the report as was legally possible following the completion of the work of the inquiry team and the presentation of its report. I am pleased that this has been achieved. When the report was received in October, I undertook to have it examined to determine what could be legally published. When this work was finalised, the report was published in its redacted form. It was left to the legal advisers to examine the report from a legal perspective and to consider the implications of publishing its full content, cognisant that a delicate balance needed to be found between protecting individual rights and the sharing of knowledge with health professionals and the wider public. In publishing the report, I did what I was legally empowered to do. Publication of the redacted report will facilitate greater awareness of the needs of families and will improve the response of service providers, and that is its value.

The provision of appropriate, robust and responsive child welfare and protection services is a key priority for me, as Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs, and the Government. The report of the Monageer inquiry identified a number of issues regarding services for children and families, and my office, the HSE and the Garda Síochána are taking actions on the report's recommendations.

There has been substantial media coverage of this report in the period following its publication. All debate on services provided to children and families is to be welcomed. However, there has been a disproportionate focus on the issue of the material redacted from the report. I have stressed, and continue to do so, that what has been published has been done so on the basis of what could be legally released into the public domain. This in no way detracts from the significant learning that can be achieved.

The chief executive officer of the HSE and the Garda Commissioner received copies of the full report in their capacities as heads of the statutory bodies with responsibilities for matters which were the subject of the inquiry. It is intended this will enable the redacted recommendations to be addressed in so far as they apply to their respective organisations.

My aim in publishing the report was two-fold, namely, to assist health and social care professionals in examining the systems they operate and work within and improving and enhancing those systems to ensure gaps in service are identified and addressed, and to allow the public in general and those in positions of influence to be informed about the circumstances of this tragic case, so that in future they might be alerted to warning signs, however slight they may seem at the time.

Public vigilance can and should be promoted in this way. Senator Walsh rightly pointed to the vigilance of members of the public, in particular the undertaker and the curate who visited the family just before the tragedy.

I appreciate the sensitivities of the information divulged in the report, but I feel it is important practical lessons are learned from reports such as this. We should be reminded that the key message of the Children First guidelines for the protection and welfare of children is that responsibility for protecting children must be shared by all adults. Grounds for concern should be immediately reported to the statutory authorities and those who report concerns in good faith will be afforded all the protections afforded by the law.

The Government and the HSE have been quick to respond to the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report. There are a number of recent initiatives I would like to draw to the attention of the House. I am pleased to acknowledge the new proposals unveiled in recent weeks by the HSE to support a more integrated health and social care system. The plan is to put in place a post under a national director for service integration to address the service needs of children and families across the HSE. This is the first time such an appointment has been made in respect of health and social services for children.

Co-ordinating these services to provide an integrated multidisciplinary solution with good communication and clarity of roles and responsibilities goes to the heart of the recommendations of the Monageer inquiry report. I can confirm to the Seanad I had a meeting with the HSE today to progress this matter further.

Another major development, and one which addresses some of the communications issues identified by the inquiry team, is the establishment by the HSE in February 2009 of a task force to standardise policies and procedures for child protection and welfare services across the country, to be completed by the end of this month and implemented in June. This task force has involved detailed, indepth consultation with social work staff and management in the HSE around the country, and will set national standards across the HSE.

It has examined issues around the reform of social work services, analysis of key management information flows and the definition and implementation of standardised business processes. From June 2009, the HSE intend to operate a place of safety service for children to enable the Garda to place children in a safe environment when they have to remove children from a situation of extreme risk.

The HSE is putting in place a more integrated multidisciplinary approach to out-of-hours services, building on existing general practitioner, acute hospital and mental health services, to ensure people seeking services outside normal working hours can be provided with appropriate advice, information and support, and in emergency situations access to specialist staff, such as professionals working in the areas of mental health and suicide prevention.

The HSE is commencing a comprehensive review of nursing services in the community, which will cover public health nursing services as part of the HSE transformation programme and development of primary care teams. This review will have regard to the role, function and reporting relationships of public health nurses and community registered general nurses, and will take specific account of the public health nursing service for children under five years of age by reviewing systems currently in place.

In March 2009, the HSE initiated a process, led by a small group with experience in early intervention team services, to prepare a framework for the delivery of early intervention services, covering both statutory and non-statutory providers, to ensure a standard and consistent approach to the delivery of such services.

The findings of the Monageer report will be incorporated into Garda practices and procedures to complement the Children First guidelines, which provide a framework for the Garda Síochána and the HSE to deal with the sensitive area of child welfare and protection. Co-ordination between the Garda and the HSE will be a priority over the next number of months. Considerable progress has been made on missing children, and protocols have been developed around that, as well as the place of safety initiative I referred to earlier.

These actions have been taken in the context of this inquiry and the publication of the redacted report. This shows the value of this inquiry and proves I was correct to take the course of action I did in having the report published. The learning from this inquiry is already being put to good use, and my determination to improve services as a result of this learning is bearing fruit. This is what we should be concentrating on, because we must look forward, learn and improve our responses in a co-ordinated and focussed way in the best interests of children.

A key finding of the inquiry states that even if Garda or social services had called to the Dunne family during the course of the weekend, it is likely the tragedy would not have been averted. Notwithstanding this, it is incumbent upon us to take every possible action to address issues of inter-agency and inter-personal co-operation and communication, and to develop, to the best extent possible, an approach to identifying and intervening in situations where children and families may be at risk.

It is impossible to create a catch-all remedy, but the steps I have outlined go a long way in terms of the ongoing development of a pro-active, preventative approach to dealing with families in need. In this context, I also note the ongoing work to develop a greater understanding of the phenomenon of familicide.

To further our understanding of the complexities of this occurrence, the HSE established a group headed by Geoff Day, director of the National Office of Suicide Prevention, in 2008. The work of the group is focusing on identifying risk and protective factors and the measures that can be taken to minimise such risks.

I would like to inform the House I am currently in the process of obtaining legal advice on the issue of appraising the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children of the substance of the redacted recommendations of the report. Whatever course of action I will be in a position to take will have to be taken in line with the legal advice I receive, and in a manner and context which ensures the rights of those involved are protected and no reputational damage is suffered. I await further clarification in this regard.

For the moment, I expect to have comprehensive legal advice on the issues involved in the next number days and I assure the House I will act on the basis of that legal advice promptly and decisively. I thank the House for the opportunity to speak on this issue.