Alex White (Labour)

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate early in the new year on four reports on special care units for children which were published yesterday by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. They make for disturbing reading and identify significant failings in four separate centres with regard to how they are managed and staffed and in the training of those running and working in them. I accept that many good people work in such care units. However, the State faces a severe problem. As Jamie Smyth reports in The Irish Times this morning, the sad thing in reading the reports is that the children in question appear to feel more at risk in the units than they felt in the community. That is a shocking statement which the House must acknowledge in drawing conclusions on how these units are managed and operated.

I note an extraordinary statement made by the Minister of State with responsibility for children yesterday.