Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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414. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his Department's priorities for the remainder of this Dáil; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29580/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I am committed to building on the significant work of the Government to develop and enhance a wide range of services for children and families. Among my main priorities will be:

-To publish the report of the interdepartmental group I established to advise on options for future investment in affordable child care and to progress implementation in the context of Budget 2016;

-To complete the national children detention facility project at Oberstown, Lusk, Co. Dublin, which will see an end to the practice of detaining children in adult prisons. This will include enactment of the Children (Amendment) Bill before the summer recess;

-To enact the Children First Bill 2014, which has passed all stages in the Dáil earlier this week and will now proceed to the Seanad;

-To publish the General Scheme and Heads of the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill, and refer it for pre-legislative scrutiny to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children;

-To publish and enact the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2015, which will provide for aftercare planning;

-To finalise the draft Child Care (Pre-School) Regulations, which will strengthen the regulatory and inspection powers of Tusla in relation to early years services;

-To maintain oversight of the work being done by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, to develop its range of services and to address a number of key concerns regarding child welfare and protection services;

-To oversee the second phase of the Growing Up in IrelandStudy, which will run from 2015 to 2019;

-To maintain the momentum of the work generated by Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People, and to present the annual report on its first year of implementation;

-To publish a new Early Years Strategy, which will build on the extensive commitments already contained inBetter Outcomes, Brighter Futures;

-Through the Children and Young People’s Services Committees, to build inter-agency cooperation towards improving outcomes for children and young people;

-To publish a new Youth Strategy;

-To establish a Children and Young People’s Participation Hub, as part of the Department’s Participation Strategy;

-To finalise policy proposals and develop legislation for the reform of guardian ad litem services under the Child Care Act 1991;

-To promulgate Regulations providing for a ban on corporal punishment in certain alternative care settings; and

-To progress the Area Based Childhood (ABC) programme.

I do not regard this as an exhaustive list, but I will work intensively over the coming months to progress these and other priorities to the benefit of children and families.