Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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1898. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to safeguard and strengthen safety and protection policies for young disabled children travelling unsupervised on transport services to and from their homes to schools, hospitals, residential homes or other care facilities; if her Department has had liaison with existing transport providers in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26712/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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It is the policy position of this Government that everyone in society has a duty to keep children safe from harm, and that each Government Department is responsible for ensuring that services and initiatives under their remit adhere to best practice in child protection. In this regard, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which has oversight of transport providers, is responsible for ensuring that adequate children safeguarding arrangements operate within its sector.

The Children First Act 2015, which I am intending to commence in full by the end of the year, will place the following statutory obligations on providers of relevant services to children:

- To keep children safe from harm while they are availing of the service;

- To carry out a risk assessment to identify potential safeguarding risks which could arise while children are availing of the service, and,

- To develop a Child Safeguarding Statement that outlines the policies and procedures which are in place to mitigate the risks identified.

The types of organisation which will acquire these statutory obligations are set out in Schedule 1 of the Children First Act, but they include residential and health care services for children with disabilities and "any work or activity as a driver of, or as an assistant to the driver, or as a conductor, or as a supervisor of children using a vehicle which is being hired or used only for the purpose of conveying children who are unaccompanied by a parent or guardian."