Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators who contributed to the debate on this legislation and repeat my thanks to Deputies who contributed to it as it proceeded through the Dáil. It is very heartening that there is such a positive response to the establishment of the new Child and Family Agency which has a very big task ahead of it. We have all the historic reports of the failings in child protection and we are on a course to change that. It will not be done overnight but this is a very strong foundation in terms of an approach to the services of selecting out the services and having them in a separate agency.

Like many Senators, I pay tribute to the staff in my Department, including my Secretary General, Mr. Jim Breslin, Ms Liz Canavan, who was involved in drafting this legislation, and all of the team. It is a huge piece of legislation. Much dedicated work has gone on over a very long period of time because, as I said, it is major public sector reform in terms of 4,000 staff transferring and new functions.

I record my thanks to everyone who was involved. I also mention Ms Maureen Lynott, who was the chair of the task force and who did such good ground work in preparing for the vision of the agency, what it should look like and the services which should be within it, and the considerable detailed work the members of that task force did. It has been extremely helpful and influential in terms of approaching the establishment of the agency.

In terms of what Senator Conway said about the changes in approach to legislation, the suggestions the Taoiseach has been making about having committee hearings at an earlier stage with experts is the way to go and it will give that kind of fluidity about which the Senator spoke and will probably be more satisfactory for everyone. I hope the way I responded to the amendments today and the suggestions I made about how various issues can be taken further, will make a difference in terms of how the agency functions and that Senators' contributions will impact on the development of the work of the agency. I thank the NGOs because prior to going into the Dáil with the Bill, I published quite a number of amendments to it to capture some of the key points people felt were missing at the earlier stage.

Accountability is a crucial part of the Bill. The performance framework and the annual performance statement are included in it. That is very strong in terms of giving directions and guidelines and reforms are already underway in children and family services. As was said, it will be a solid platform and a sound basis for continuing change and improvement in how children and family services are delivered. It delivers on a very key part of our programme for Government commitment.

Many people have worked collaboratively to ensure the agency gets off to a strong start. I look forward to that continuing collaboration, which will be very important. Children and families and those in need of support, assistance, guidance and direction deserve the best service we can offer. The establishment of the child and family agency is a positive step in the right direction but I repeat we have much work to do.