Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, and thank him for doing an excellent job. As Senator Healy Eames pointed out, he is here for the duration of the Second Stage debate on the Bill. That does not surprise me because he takes ownership of and a great interest in his brief, on which I commend him.

I was listening to the debate in my office before I came to the Chamber. It is striking that we all have the same hymn sheet today. Everybody is saying the same thing and wants the same result, the best outcomes for children at risk. It is very sad that the world in which we live requires the introduction of legislation to provide for special care orders for children at risk. However, it is good that we recognise society as it is today and are making such provision.

I welcome this amendment. It is a short one to give powers to the High Court, yet the Bill is weighty when one sees it in print. The important element in it is that, for the first time, it allows the HSE to go to the High Court to seek a special care order for children who require detention. However, I do not like the word "detention" and prefer to use the word "protection". Usually and sadly it is protection of the child from themselves. The principle of the legislation is to intervene in the troubled lives of children or, as Justice John McMenamin described it, the children who have fallen through the cracks of society. They have become vulnerable through neglect and are easy prey for the criminals who rule our streets.

It is a vicious cycle. If a child is neglected long enough and comes to the attention of the HSE through social workers or psychologists, he or she will go on to cause trouble for himself or herself and others. He or she will cause trouble for himself or herself because he or she will have a troubled life and never view himself or herself as amounting to anything. It is a vicious cycle because in many cases we find that this situation will follow a family. It is good that this is being recognised and something is being done about it. It is also important to recognise the good work done by psychologists, social workers, teachers in our schools, gardaí and members of the HSE who come in contact with troubled children. Not every child will be the subject of a court order for special care, but the few who are must really exercise our minds. However, there are good results associated with children who have come to the attention of social workers, psychologists and the Garda and who have been put on the right path.

It is interesting to hear what the special care units will have to offer. When a court order is made and granted, a child deemed to require care will be in the care of the HSE. The Bill gives the Garda increased powers in this regard. A garda will be able go to the home of a child, be he in school or otherwise, enforce the law and take him into the care of the HSE. How long will it be before the HSE can apply to the courts for a hearing pertaining to an order to have a child taken into a special care unit?

It is only right that there will be a special care programme for children at risk. There will be social workers assigned to them, together with psychologists, teachers, care workers and whoever else is needed for the care plan to be worked out. Taking any young person out of the comfort of his or her home involves a huge wrench, regardless of how dysfunctional the home is. It is the only home the child has known. Children adapt very easily, however, and it is right to break the cycle to which I referred. Breaking the cycle is the only way to proceed.

There is no point in our saying that if the services stipulated did not exist, a child might come right. There is certainly a need for the services, particularly given the type of crime on the streets today. We must also bear in mind the spread of so-called head shops which give children access to hallucinogenic drugs at a young age. We are to debate head shops tomorrow and it will be interesting to hear what Members have to say thereon.

The circumstances of today did not exist ten years ago and certainly not 15 or 20 years ago. The types of children at risk 20 years ago were very different from and more innocent than those of today. I welcome the Bill and look forward to debating it and to its passage.

Senator Corrigan had a very good idea and in this regard asked whether a process could be put in place so children would be monitored when emerging from a special care unit. The process would involve evaluating the system on their emergence. Lessons would be learned and the process would represent a good way of spending money. We can learn from our mistakes but also from what is good and what will happen in the special care units. I look forward to debating the legislation on all Stages.

The Minister may not have seen the features section in today's The Irish Times. It contains an article by Carl O'Brien on the lack of inspection and unregulated State-funded care for people with a disability. As the Minister of State can imagine, it makes harrowing reading, especially the reference to a young, troubled boy in Cork who was put into care in an educational institution for people with mild intellectual disabilities. The parents, for all their goodness, believed, on the basis of advice, that this was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, the boy was badly sexually abused in the home. Nobody knew at first because he did not have the words to articulate it. When he used to come home, he became frustrated and angry and when he used to return to the school, he became very troubled, so much so that he was moved to another school.

At first, nobody got to the bottom of why the boy, who had been a carefree and happy-go-lucky child, suddenly became very troubled. One night when he was at home watching television with one of his older sisters, he became very troubled and enraged. He saw on television the man who had abused him when he was in care. That man was subsequently charged and found guilty of the abuse of young boys. It was only after this that the boy could tell his story. While these are very troubled times financially, it would not take a lot of money to have homes inspected and monitored, particularly for the benefit of those who are already vulnerable.

I walked down Molesworth Street at approximately 10.30 a.m. today. Outside Hamilton Osborne King and the European Parliament Office in Ireland I met two very young girls. They appeared to be foreign nationals and were definitely no more than 15. They were begging on the street. What a sad and sorry sight it was. They are minors and should be in a school or in some form of care. Last week, I heard that 500 foreign national children in the care of the HSE, and in respect of whom their parents are seeking asylum, have gone missing. This is wrong. Given that gardaí are on the beat, why is there no system in place such that the children can be brought to the Bridewell or Store Street Garda stations, especially given their age? They would be safer there than on the street, particularly given the crimes perpetrated today.