Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Ruane for raising this important matter and for her ongoing work in this really significant area. It is valuable that Members of the Seanad should have the opportunity to express their views on issues concerning vulnerable children and young people in or leaving State care.

We all share an ambition for children in care to thrive. This requires all forms of alternative care in Ireland to support and look after children and young people, and for these individuals to have continuous relationships with those involved in their care. It means that children in care should be supported to express themselves and to be heard, and that a care placement should continue to support the continuity of key relationships in a child's life. Overall it is important to remember that children are unique when they enter care and they are unique when they leave.

All children in care will have different and particular needs necessitating individualised care and care planning. Therefore, I welcome this opportunity to engage with Senators on alternative care services and supports. I also want to reflect on the considerable progress that Ireland has made in this important area over recent years, some of which I will now mention briefly. First, the establishment of Tusla in 2014 represented the most comprehensive reform of child protection, early intervention and family support services ever undertaken in Ireland. Today, Tusla employs over 4,000 staff and budget 2022 will bring the agency's budget to almost €800 million. This significant investment underlines this Government's commitment to ensuring that Tusla has the resources to meet its mission of protecting and supporting our most vulnerable children, young people and families. Undoubtedly, the agency has had challenges but I have real confidence in its senior leadership in implementing reforms across this agency.

Second, Better Outcomes Brighter Futures, which was published and launched in 2014, represented the first overarching national policy framework for children and young people in Ireland. This landmark document sets out a whole-of-government vision for Ireland to be one of the best small countries in the world in which to grow up, including for those children and young persons in the care of the State. The Child Care Act 1991 is the statutory framework for child welfare and protection in Ireland. The legislation places a statutory duty on Tusla to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care and protection. It sets the legislative provisions on taking children into care and the responsibilities of the State in that regard, which aim to improve outcomes for looked-after children. The legislation is underpinned by regulations and national standards set out by HIQA to support the welfare of the child and the quality of his or her care. New legislative provisions were commenced in 2017, which put on a statutory basis Tusla's responsibilities to provide assistance to eligible individuals over 18 years of age as part of an after-care service.

Finally, in respect of our international commitments, I am glad to say that Ireland has honoured its commitment, under the European Union relief projects, to receive 36 separated children from refugee camps in Greece. This commitment was honoured with a backdrop of the pandemic and the considerable logistical and safety considerations that this entailed. Intense planning preceded the operation in May and was only achievable through the dedicated work of Department officials, members of An Garda Síochána, Tusla's social workers and their counterparts in Europe and Athens. The final 28 young people were brought to Ireland in August and September of this year. They are being cared for through a number of means, including the innovative Fáilte Care programme that Tusla created for the fostering of children who came to Ireland as unaccompanied minors.

While these are considerable milestones, my focus is to continue the positive progress that has been made in alternative care provision through the delivery of a significant reform agenda underpinned by a substantial and high-quality evidence base. This includes ensuring that legislation relating to children in care is child centred and fit for purpose in a modern Ireland. In 2017, my Department commenced a process to revise and update the Child Care Act 1991. This complex work is currently ongoing following a consultation process that began in 2020 and enabled key stakeholders to inform and influence the development of this landmark legislation. I look forward to bringing a comprehensive set of amendments to this legislation to this House next year.

The programme for Government contained a commitment to enact a family court Bill. This would be a key element in the development of a more efficient an user-friendly family court system that puts families at the centre of its activities, provides access to specialist supports, and encourages the use of alternative dispute resolution in family law proceedings.

As Minister for children and young people, I am committed to the principle that young people should be supported to participate in key conversations or decisions that affect their lives. The Constitution has explicitly protected this principle since the introduction of Article 42A in 2015. Therefore, it is imperative that when a child enters a court setting his or her voice or wishes should be heard. Last month, firm progress in this regard was made when the Cabinet approved the drafting of the new child care (amendment) [guardian ad litem] Bill 2021. The revised general scheme of this Bill has been published and will come before pre-legislative scrutiny in the coming weeks. The Bill aims to extend the guardian ad litemor GAL system to benefit the greatest number of children and young people, and to ensure that the best interests of children and young people in childcare proceedings are met. This ambitious programme of work seeks to improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable children in the State and their families.

To conclude my opening remarks here today, I want to update Senators on some of the key ongoing matters of relevance to alternative care. As the Senators may be aware, the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is currently developing draft overarching national standards for the care and support of children using health and social care services. I understand that some stakeholders, including foster carers, have expressed concerns regarding these draft standards during the public consultation process.While I met the IFCA on this issue earlier in the year and have subsequently taken note of its concerns in respect of a number of areas in the draft report, I also recognise need to review the current 2003 foster care standards.

I have also met a number of other stakeholders through the year regarding the aftercare services provided by Tusla. Some of these organisations advocated for the changes to the upper threshold of eligibility for aftercare support. Aftercare remains a relatively new service, being in place on a statutory basis only since 2017. It is, therefore, prudent to first ensure that this service is fully delivered and is providing measurable and improved outcomes for those transitioning from State care before consideration to extending such services to a larger cohort of care leavers is undertaken. I continue to examine equalisation between care leavers who are and are not continuing on in higher further education. My Department is currently progressing an audit of aftercare provision in conjunction with Tusla and this will contribute towards an evidence base for any future decision on aftercare supports.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that tomorrow I will participate in the launch of the ripe for reform report. This report presents key findings by the Child Care Law Reporting Project, CCLRP, following its analysis of childcare proceedings over the past three years, as commissioned by my Department. I welcome this valuable report which is timely, considering our ongoing work to ensure that alternative care in Ireland works for the benefit of our most vulnerable children. We all recognise that the CCLRP is a particularly unique and beneficial way of gathering real-time and long-lasting data on what is happening in child proceedings, in particular as they take place in cameraand, therefore, without that, we would not be able to understand trends, patterns and degrees of consistency, or lack thereof, in terms of the approach to child law.

To conclude, I hope today's proceedings in the House will contribute to furthering the goal of a better understanding of the needs of children in care and children leaving care. I look forward to hearing my Oireachtas colleagues' contributions on this issue. As I notified Senators earlier, I have to attend a debate in the Dáil this evening. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, will replace me and represent the Government on the conclusion of the debate. I again thank the House for the opportunity to speak on this issue. As Senators will be aware, I am happy to engage with all of them on this issue. I again thank Senator Ruane for seeking this debate and championing this issue.