Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I again emphasis that this is a very serious issue and of major concern to me. It is caught up with other issues such as illegal immigration. Conflating it exclusively with trafficking is something we should not do. I agree a telephone number should be made more widely available, a point the Senator made in her opening comments.

In terms of advocacy, I have met representative groups such as the ISPCC, the Children's Rights Alliance and Barnardos which are advocating on behalf of this group. We have set up a working group to try to monitor the closure of the hostels to which I referred. I understand the Senator is referring to a statutory advocacy role for the Office of the Ombudsman for Children which was set up under statute and has specific functions. Therefore, expanding its role would require legislation but I am sure it would not hesitate to support the other groups to which I referred which are represented on the working group. It is a worry. In spite of the initiatives we have taken, there was a spike in the numbers in 2009. There are serious issues which have to be addressed and I hope the initiatives taken will bear fruit in due course.