Imelda Henry (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House; she is a regular visitor and is always most welcome. We are very lucky to have a full Cabinet Minister with responsibility for children and the various issues associated with the well-being of children and families. We can finally put issues relating to children's welfare, safety and protection on political and social agendas. We must ensure immediate and co-ordinated action can be taken whenever a child goes missing.

The purpose of the 116000 telephone number is to provide a contact number for families of children who go missing, and the hotline will take calls on missing children, liaise with the Garda, provide a point of support and guidance for parents and family members of missing children and support ongoing investigations. I know the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has recently met non-governmental organisations, NGOs, which are eager to assist in the establishment of the hotline and she is grateful for the work they have already put into this process. I know that she is anxious to move this matter forward as quickly as possible.

The Garda and the HSE take every incident of missing children extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring that any vulnerable children are not exploited or ill-treated as part of their responsibility to provide care for any children in the State who are deemed not to have appropriate or satisfactory care arrangements. This includes separated children seeking asylum. It is important to note that the input of the Garda is central to the issue of missing children and it has ultimate responsibility for the investigation of these matters. The Garda and the HSE have worked closely in this regard in recent years and the HSE, as the major statutory child care authority in Ireland, recognised the value of an EU common hotline for missing children. Access to a hotline telephone number can be of great assistance to parents when a child goes missing from home or while travelling in another European country.

It is important to acknowledge the services available via some charitable organisations and others. The national missing persons hotline, in association with the Garda, works very well, and working with the agencies is important. The Minister has stated that one child missing is one too many but it is astonishing to hear the figures for child abduction, with 117 incoming and 116 outgoing. This issue must be very challenging for the relevant authorities.

Whereas the introduction of a missing children's hotline involves many Departments, the notification of a missing child is particularly a matter for the Garda Síochána. I understand that the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, are jointly seeking to achieve the establishment of this service. Different costings for such a service have been calculated, including by NGOs interested in providing the service. In the current financial climate, it is essential that the most economical approach possible is taken to providing any service. The Minister hopes a partnership approach will achieve a cost-effective solution to the implementation of this important initiative. I know we are in unprecedented times economically and budgets are tight but this EU co-ordinated hotline for missing children must be given priority.