Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is interesting that the Senator should ask that question. My office has an obligation to fulfil its responsibilities under the national children's strategy in so far as the voice of the child is concerned. That is why we organise Dáil na nÓg, the Children and Young People's Forum and the advisory group. This year, for the first time, we have tried to ensure we consult children in care. We have established a forum within which children in care can give us information. That process has revealed interesting information, with which I was not up to speed. It is a useful process in so far as it is informing policy in areas such as aftercare, an issue we might discuss later in the debate. We have started to do this work for the first time and I hope it will produce results and inform policy in due course.