Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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732. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs when she plans to publish the children and youth policy framework; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1791/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Work on the completion of the new Children and Young People’s Policy Framework is now at a very advanced stage and I expect to be a position to submit the Policy Framework for Government approval in the very near future. The Policy Framework will cover the period 2014-2018 and will build on Our Children — Their Lives, the first National Children’s Strategy which was published in 2000. The development of the Framework will meet one of the key recommendations of the implementation plan for the Ryan Report.

The Policy Framework will provide a whole-of-Government approach to policies for children and young people and a means for cross departmental collaboration to promote the well-being of children and young people. The Policy Framework will comprehend the continuum from infancy through early and middle childhood to adolescence and early adulthood and provide the overarching framework for the development and implementation of policy and services for children and young people. The Policy Framework will be supported by more detailed strategies in relation to specific age cohorts such as Early Years and Youth.

The views of a wide range of interests, including children and young people, have been taken into account through the following consultations:

- the results of a consultation in 2011, which focussed on children and young people, in which almost 67,000 people throughout the country participated and the results of the analysis of the consultation were published last November;

- a public consultation of the general public conducted during in 2012. Over 1,000 submissions were received as part of that consultation. An analysis of the submissions was completed last April;

- the advice of the National Children’s Advisory Council which represents a range of statutory and non-statutory organisations working with children and young people; and

- detailed discussions with other Government Departments.