David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I welcome the Bill and the establishment of the Child and Family Agency. Sinn Féin has called for such a Bill for many years. We also welcomed the appointment of a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and the establishment of a new Department. In the referendum last year, the people endorsed a constitutional amendment to strengthen the rights of children. I was very pleased to support that referendum and was pleased with the outcome. At the time, our party spokesperson on health and children, Deputy Ó Caoláin, said it was imperative the amendment be followed up by robust legislation and by the allocation of resources to vindicate the rights of children. Sinn Féin believes this Bill is a step forward, although we also believe there is a very long way to go.

The appointment of a Minister and the establishment of the Department arguably came at the worst possible time economically. However, it could be argued that in economically harsh times, children need even greater protection and enhanced representation more than ever. In that context, the allocation of a budget of €439 million to the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in 2013 is modest to say the least, albeit an increase on 2012. The fact of the matter is that this Government pumped billions of euro of public money into Anglo Irish Bank, while only allocating less than €500 million this year to the Department responsible for the children of Ireland. Even worse is that one of the smallest allocations in the Revised Estimates for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is a €2.5 million State contribution for the area-based response to child poverty. I note the Minister stated the bulk of the funding for this programme, €29 million, comes from Atlantic Philanthropies. This covers just three disadvantaged areas in this State and the Minister hopes another three will be added next year. There is a bitter irony in this. The Government is topping up a grant from an international charity to address child poverty, while the same Government is increasing child poverty through its futile austerity policies. This is an indisputable fact, as we need only point to the cut to child benefit, which represents the single worst assault in many years on the incomes of families with children and which hits low to middle-income families worst of all. Moreover, this occurred in the wake of the children’s referendum.

While a total of €2.5 million is going to a handful of areas to address child poverty - any funding to address child poverty is to be welcomed - in budget 2013 a full-year cut of €142 million was made to child benefit and Members should stop to think about the contrast between these two figures. All cuts to budgets that affect children will undermine the positive work and the future plans of this Department, including the plans for the Child and Family Agency.

While the explanatory memorandum states that the new agency on its establishment will assume responsibility for child welfare and protection, including services relating to the psychological welfare of children, it does not require the new agency to take into account the views of children in matters pertaining to their lives and welfare. This is something I had understood to have been established clearly, certainly in the spirit if not the letter, on foot of the children's referendum. I believe the Minister should strengthen the commitment in this legislation on Committee Stage. The new Child and Family Agency was of course initially intended to be called the child and family support agency. Sinn Féin has raised the matter of the dropping of the word "support" from the title of the new body previously, but the Minister has not adequately replied to our questions. I am in no way assured there is not an ulterior reason for so doing. In replying to Second Stage contributions, will the Minister expand on whatever she has already said on this matter?

The Family Support Agency has been a key player in addressing a range of challenges that present in the lives of families. It had a board that included representation from the Family Resource Centre National Forum and again, despite repeated questioning, the Minister has avoided clarity on the make-up of the interim or transition board and the board of the new Child and Family Agency. Will the Minister take the opportunity today to explain the reasons for the disbandment of the Family Support Agency board and why she has not appointed an interim board since then? Will the Family Resource Centre National Forum have direct representation on the new Child and Family Agency board and, if not, why not? There is considerable concern among those involved across the network of family resource centres that without critical representation, their character, ethos and long-established focus will be placed at risk. Surely the access that has served the sector so well should be maintained and the Family Resource Centre National Forum should have board representation on the new agency.

There is also serious concern about current child protection services and the real position relating to social worker numbers. The Minister was at pains, over several months last year and earlier this year, to assure the House that the promised recruitment had been progressed and, if not complete, was nearly completed. However, we learn from the recently published report that addresses child protection service in Waterford, Roscommon and in south-east Dublin, that in 96 cases brought to the attention of the HSE child protection services, less than half were adequately addressed. The report states that there were "many families in which the circumstances for children did not improve despite the involvement of statutory services." Perhaps the Minister might respond to those reports as well.

I support the Bill, but we have a long way to go in this State to address child poverty. Nobody wants to see any citizen living in poverty, but unfortunately we have far too many in this State living in poverty and to see children living in poverty has to be a motivation for all of us to do more and provide as much resources as we can to deal with that issue.