Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and commend her on her introduction of the Bill. It marks a major step forward in child protection and welfare services. As already noted, it is one of the most significant public service reforms in the life of this Government. The programme for Government undertook to fundamentally reform the delivery of child protection services by removing child welfare and protection from the HSE and ensuring the creation of a dedicated child welfare and protection agency, reforming the service delivery model and improving accountability to the Dáil. This is interesting because, presumably, since the Irish people have chosen to retain the Seanad, that means the Seanad as well. Perhaps it should be accountability to the Oireachtas rather then the Dáil.

We are all aware of the historic failings in child protection services in this State, as other speakers have mentioned. Over the last decade we have seen approximately 17 reports chronicling the Irish State's dismal failure to protect Irish children. More recently we have seen independent reviews into, for example, the deaths of 23 children who were in contact with HSE services in 2012. That report raised concerns over ongoing matters which we should be very concerned about, particularly the heavy workloads and under-staffing in social services. The Minister has done great work in increasing the number of social workers, but this remains a concern. The number of young people who died by committing suicide while in contact with State services was of great concern.

That report, and a number of others, raised concerns about poor co-operation between State agencies and substandard assessments of vulnerable children's needs. In half of the cases in the report, inter-agency reviews would have assisted in their management. There has been consensus in a number of reports about the lack of harmonisation of services for children and the fact that the current complex operational system is damaging our capacity to protect children.

A key recommendation of a number of the reports has led us to where we are today. In particular, the task force on the child and family support agency recommended an integrated model of service delivery with inter-agency working and the merging of a range of primary prevention, early intervention and therapeutic interventions into a single agency along with child protection and welfare services that were within the HSE. The task force recommended the establishment of an independent agency rather than an attempt to bring matters more fully under HSE control. It examined a number of other models and came down on the side of the independent agency approach for a number of reasons.

Credit is due to the Minister in a number of other areas that sit four-square with the matter before us today - for example, the introduction in 2011 of the Children First guidelines, which brought about a greater awareness of child protection issues and the need for more extensive reporting. The proof of the success of that measure has been the rise in the number of reports of abuse and neglect of children. In 2012 more than 40,000 cases of abuse and neglect of children were reported, a damning figure by any standards. Other reforms include the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 and the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. Much progress has been made and I congratulate the Minister on that.

We are here to acknowledge the failures in the system and ask whether creating a child and family agency will improve outcomes for children. I believe it will, for two reasons. First, the failures identified are being addressed in great measure by what is before us today. The new agency will have a staff of more than 4,000 and a budget of nearly €600 million. On the face of it, the transfer of child protection, welfare, preschool inspections, domestic and sexual abuse services, child and related community psychology services into one agency with the staff and budget coming, as it does, from the HSE, together with the merging of the Family Support Agency and the National Educational Welfare Board, seems as though it should address many of the concerns about inter-agency co-operation. However, I have a number of questions.

There have been concerns about the transfer of what is seen as a flawed corporate culture within the HSE into the new agency. Steps must be made to ensure that flawed corporate culture is not allowed to dominate the corporate culture of the new agency. There were concerns that some of the measures included do not go far enough and that some of the functions the task force recommended to be included in the new agency, such as speech and language therapy, will not be transferred in the immediate future, although the Minister is committed to reviewing this. Children's detention schools will remain within the Minister's Department and will not be brought into the new agency, and there will be no change to the hospital social worker situation. This represents a risk of lack of follow-through when children present within a hospital scenario.

Resources are of concern, given the 10.5% rise in the number of people aged 17 and under between 2006 and 2011. Although we have a slight easing back on that, we are still in a positive population growth scenario. Reports to the HSE children and family services increased by 36.5% between 2007 and 2011. It is important to acknowledge the need for resources for this agency if it is to do the job it is intended to do. I welcome the Minister's comments on the need for resources within communities generally. The Minister and others have made the point that, irrespective of how successful this agency is, the fact remains that many of the difficulties faced by children and families today are economically driven and relate to poverty and social exclusion.

I welcome the launch by the Minister and the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, today of the area-based childhood program 2013 to 2016. Unfortunately, I do not think €30 million will cut it. Examining the criminal justice system, those in homeless provision and those in substance-abuse provision, we can see that many of the difficulties created by poverty and social exclusion lead to poor outcomes for children in these situations. I very much welcome the Minister's commitment to amending the Child Care Act 1991 regarding after-care services. The fact that 1,500 children are receiving after-care services is excellent and most welcome.

I would like to see inspection and regulation of all child care arrangements, not just preschool. I am very concerned about this issue and will raise it at the Labour Party conference this weekend.