Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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324. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in view of his decision to transfer questions submitted last week by this Deputy to the Department of Health, if he will indicate the areas of child welfare he is responsible for or has an interest in; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36913/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that concern for child welfare in the broadest sense is at the heart of my responsibilities here as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. I lead a small Department and part of my role is to bring together the effort across all aspects of Government in achieving better outcomes for children. This vision is articulated in Better Outcomes Brighter Futures,the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People, published earlier this year. This whole of government policy framework establishes a shared set of National Outcomes and requires Government Departments and State agencies to work together in an integrated way along with non-government organisations to achieve better outcomes for children and young people.

My Department is taking a lead role in the cross-sectoral implementation of the Children First National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children. A Children First Implementation Inter-Departmental Group, which involves all of the key Government Departments together with the Child and Family Agency and An Garda Síochána is chaired by officials from my Department. The purpose of the Group is to promote the importance of Children First compliance across Government and to ensure a consistent approach is adopted. It should be noted that the Children First Bill, 2014, which is currently progressing through the Oireachtas, includes a provision to place this Group on a statutory basis.

The establishment of and responsibility for the Child and Family Agency is central to my Department's responsibilities. The Child and Family Agency Act 2013 sets out the Agency's functions as supporting the development, welfare and protection of children and the effective functioning of families. I also have a range of responsibilities concerning the welfare of children arising from various functions transferred to it on and since the establishment of the Department under transfer of functions orders. These include my responsibility through the Children Act 2001 for the welfare of children who are detained by order of the Courts in the Children Detention Schools at Oberstown.

My decision to transfer two questions that were submitted by the Deputy last week to the Department of Health was simply a factual matter of legal responsibility. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and policy responsibility in respect of CAMHS rests with the Minister for Health. CAMHS did not transfer to the newly established Child and Family Agency, Tusla, which was established on 1st January 2014. It simply does not come under my remit and I had no wish to waste the Deputy's time in replying to a question for which I did not have responsibility. By transferring his questions to the Department of Health, I would hope that the Deputy received the replies that he sought.