Jillian van Turnhout (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House. As we approach the Cabinet's first anniversary I recalled when the post of a minister for children was announced and I was in Brussels. I have learned that people in politics keep saying that they are not surprised by announcements. I did not expect such an announcement and was surprised. The Department has great potential and for once we had joined-up thinking rather than just talking about it. Today I am still as excited as ever about the Department's potential. It has taken time to bring together the various components and youth affairs was added. It now has the potential to deal with the transitions from the cradle to early adulthood and these are essential building blocks in a young person's life.

There has been a lot of talk about report cards. I do not need to remind the Minister of the Children's Rights Alliance report card on her performance and it gave her a good rating. She has good intentions that point in the right direction but there are many challenges. Resources are a challenge and ranges from staffing to what is within the Minister's remit and we, as a Seanad, need to pay close attention.

The Minister gave a strong commitment to early years education and those early years in a child's life. I too echo the welcome for the early years strategy. Yesterday she sought and secured approval for same from Cabinet and it was an endorsement of her view that the strategy is important.

With regard to her commitment to the free pre-school year, there has been some cuts. Her strong commitment to it has ensured that it is in place and will continue. I underline the importance of quality. We all need to be mindful of funding cuts. We can get away with little ones but we need to be aware that too many of them could lead to a deterioration in the quality of essential early years education.

We are today concerned with early intervention and family support services and I will focus on them. The Minister mentioned the new child and family support agency and I welcome her work on it. The agency has the potential to be a powerful vehicle for reform in how we work with and support children and their families. Ultimately, it will lead to better outcomes for children and their families here.

We all talk about the difficulties with the HSE and I am mindful that in establishing the agency we must get it right. We have a real opportunity to get it right. For me it is important that all actors must be clear about their roles and responsibilities, particularly their statutory duties outlined under the child care legislation. There needs to be clear lines of accountability. Who will the agency report to? I assume that it will be to the Minister. We also need to ensure that the agency caters for all children and that it will not be like a NAMA for children. It must be an agency that deals with child protection, welfare and well-being.

I ask the Minister to strongly consider adding the role of public health nurses to the agency. They play an important role in identifying early any difficulties in a family or supports that a family needs to ensure that it works. All too often we have focused on social workers, who play an essential role, but they are not the only ones that interact with families. We need to ensure that people like public health nurses are part of the new agency.

I am conscious that the national children's detention centre at Oberstown has now come within the Minister's remit. It is a children's rights issue and I have made my views known on it. I am aware that schemes like the Garda juvenile diversion programme are an early intervention measure. The scheme does not come within the Minister's remit, therefore, her Department has to deal with them when they end up in the detention centre, not the early intervention aspect. Nevertheless, it is important that the Minister plays a role in shaping the early intervention policy around the juvenile diversion programmes.

I also stress the importance of youth work. I know there have been funding cuts to youth work organisations. However, they play an essential role in early intervention in children's lives, in supporting them and in helping them develop.

The Minister spoke about and named specific prevention and early intervention programmes which have been funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and Atlantic Philanthropies. The programme for Government states:

A new approach is needed to break the cycle of child poverty where it is most deeply entrenched. We will adopt a new area-based approach to child poverty, which draws on best international practice and existing services to tackle every aspect of child poverty. Initially, this model will be rolled out to up to ten of Ireland's most disadvantaged communities, in co-operation with philanthropic partners to co-fund and manage the project.

To me this is a vague commitment. Part of me knows what it means but another is not quite sure. Will the Minister give us more detail on these projects? Will it be her Department that will take the lead or another agency?

Earlier today, the Ombudsman for Children published a report on her investigation into the refusal by the Department of Education and Skills to provide an assistive technology grant to a child. Will the Minister take note of this report? Can we intervene in this child's life? Could the cost of the ombudsman's investigation have provided the technology to the child in the first place?

Yesterday evening I came across a case, one which has been going on for some time, of a young child with cerebral palsy whose assistive dog has not been allowed go to school with him since Christmas. His parents, accordingly, have decided to home-school their child. The child has written a letter to the President, Michael D. Higgins, to see if he could intervene to help him. The child's dog is assistive, not a pet, and stops him from falling over. Will the Minister give this case some attention?

I was disappointed the third annual child and adolescent mental health service report stated services have been organised for children up to 15 years of age but that it cannot deal with 16 and 17 year olds because of the increase in frequency and severity of mental health disorders above the age of 15 years. This is not acceptable as a person is a child until 18 years of age. How dare the service say that in this day and age. Will the Minister give this her attention?

The Minister can be assured of my support on the referendum on children rights. It is all about early intervention. Proportionality is the most important element in this and would allow the State to recalibrate the threshold for intervention in a family. Rather than being seen as a person with the clipboard checking up on a family, an early intervention service professional should be rolling up the sleeves to support the family to work, like public health nurses. The term "proportionality" will be important in the referendum wording.