Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reasons for not including public health nurses in phase one of the new Child and Family Agency; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52798/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Government has formally decided to proceed with the drafting of a Bill to establish the Child and Family Support Agency. From its establishment the Child and Family Support Agency will have service responsibility for:

- Child welfare and protection services currently operated by the HSE including family support and alternative care services.

- Child and family related services for which the HSE currently has responsibility including pre-school inspections and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Health will work jointly on an impact analysis of proposed future arrangements for this service as they relate to children and family services covered by the Child and Family Support Agency and to services provided by the HSE.

- The Family Support Agency which currently operates as a separate body under the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and will be merged into the new Agency.

- The National Educational Welfare Board which also currently operates as a separate body under the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and will be merged into the new Agency.

The above decisions are in line with the recommendations made in the report of the Task Force on the Establishment of the Child and Family Support Agency which I published in July on this year. The Task Force also recommended that certain other services, including the children and family aspects of public health nursing, should transfer to the new Agency. I believe further work is required on the additional services to be considered for transition to the new agency. I am committed to working with the Minister for Health on the Task Force's proposals in this regard. I share with the view of the Task Force that in order to achieve genuine improvements for children and families, the Agency must have a broader focus than child protection. The inclusion of both the Family Support Agency and the National Educational Welfare Board functions will broaden the base of the organisation and bring on board a range of additional expertise and service infrastructure which highly is relevant to the children and their families at both universal and targeted level. My priority is to get these services well established and integrated as quickly as possible and to continue to examine in parallel, opportunities for further expansion of the Agency's functions once it is up and running.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the anticipated increased cost of the constitutional changes to the taxpayer in terms of the establishment of the new Child and Family Support Agency and any other costs which may be incurred; the anticipated savings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52824/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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A dedicated new budget sub-head had been established for the first time in the HSE Vote in 2012, in preparation for the planned establishment of the Child and Family Support Agency (CFSA) in 2013. In preparation for the establishment of the Agency a comprehensive due diligence and disaggregation process is underway to further review and refine the detailed components of this sub-head. In terms of the establishment of the Agency, it is anticipated that while there will be some costs attaching to its establishment but such costs will be kept to a minimum and the Agency will seek to maximise efficiencies across services through economies of scale and the usage of shared services wherever possible.

It is my intention that the new Agency will address the persistent issues which have been raised regarding the standardisation of services, communication, coordination and sharing of risk assessment, management and treatment for many of the children and families with the most complex needs. At the same time, the Agency will have a role in supporting families - providing less complex, less intrusive, less expensive responses which have a preventive function.

The new Agency and the wider transformation of children's services represents one of the largest, and most ambitious, areas of public sector reform embarked upon by this Government.