I wish to share my time with Deputy Liz O'Donnell if she should come into the House.
I am glad to have the opportunity to raise this matter of the referral service for homeless children in the Eastern Health Board region. It is not a new problem but it has reached a new intensity with the industrial dispute that is currently taking place. The failure of the health board to provide proper accommodation for homeless children and young people has been evident for quite some time.
Under the new Health Care Act the health board has a clear obligation in section 5 to provide for children who are homeless and to take the necessary steps to provide accommodation if there is clearly no alternative. The health board has not done so in the past and there has been an appalling ad hoc arrangement where staff have been trying to fill the gaps. They have clearly been finding it difficult for quite some time. The result has been that totally inappropriate accommodation has been provided on occasions for young people and children. For example, the health board has provided bed and breakfast accommodation with no backup and no provision for adequate care for these children.
Recently, in a blaze of publicity, the Minister for Health stated that he would not introduce the Health Care Act regulations unless he had the resources to do so. The Kilkenny incest case put additional pressure on the Minister and gave much media attention to the problem. However, in relation to regulations and the sections of the Act already in place, there is a clear lack of resources. It would be the ultimate in hypocrisy to give this undertaking in relation to protecting young children from abuse if at the same time accommodation is not provided for young people and children who may be, on occasions, escaping abuse in their homes and seeking shelter from the State.
The recent housing assessment indicates that there is a high level of homelessness and need for new housing. It is not clear from the Estimates what the need is among young people but there is general acceptance that within the Eastern Health Board region there is a well established need to provide for the specific conditions that exist relating to homeless children. The evidence is there.
For a long time in my own area of Wicklow, and I am sure in Kildare also, there has been no provision for young homeless people. In the Dublin region, staff have been providing after hours oncall cover on a voluntary basis. This is totally untenable. The fact that IMPACT, the union representing them, is now taking action is simply an expression of the total frustration experienced by those operating the service who are simply unable to continue to do so.
Unless this problem is tackled swiftly and resources allocated to providing both staff and accommodation we will continue to have children, like the 13 year old boy who was turned away last Tuesday night, being refused care from the Eastern Health Board. The irony is that on the same night the Minister, Deputy Howlin, announced the new £35 million package to implement further provisions of the Health Care Act. The reality is that the Minister has an obligation to fund equally the regulations already in place to ensure that all our young people and children at risk are catered for.
