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Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Vol. 189 No. 17

HSE Child Welfare and Protection Services: Statements.

I welcome to the House the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with special responsibility for children and youth affairs and wish him well on his appointment.

Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his kind remarks.

I welcome the opportunity this afternoon to discuss the important issue of child welfare and protection services, a subject of concern not alone to the Oireachtas but to society generally. Modern Ireland has seen a considerable rise in the profile of child welfare and protection issues in recent years. At the same time, we have more recently seen a period of major investment in child care and family support services to enable an appropriate response to child welfare concerns with more than €240 million in Government funding having been added to the annual investment in child care services since 1997.

The core principle underpinning these reforms and additional funding is to provide children and young people with the highest possible quality of care and to provide services to protect them as far as possible from all forms of harm. Since taking up office I have in all my contacts stressed the priority which both I and the Government place on the need to provide appropriate services to the most vulnerable young members of our society. In this regard, my aim is the provision of world-class child welfare and protection services for Ireland. I realise this goal will present many significant challenges in terms of resources and service reform. I look forward to addressing these challenges on behalf of our children.

A recent "Prime Time Investigates" programme highlighted many issues and created a much higher level of interest in this area. I welcome this and thank those responsible for producing the programme. The media has an important role to play in public affairs. The programme concerned contributed to our overall knowledge and created a forum for proper discussion on the issue. There are real issues to be addressed. I was troubled by the cases presented in the "Prime Time Investigates" programme. I am concerned that no child should suffer from problems with services. However, it is often the nature of our modern media to focus on negative aspects of a given topic. We must realise that within the short time available to broadcast a programme, the full picture can never be achieved.

Child welfare and protection in Ireland is primarily predicated on the Child Care Act 1991 and the Children Act 2001. The Child Care Act 1991 places a legal obligation on the Health Service Executive, HSE, to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care and attention. In implementing the Act, the primary emphasis must be on prevention and early intervention where possible and supporting children in their family situation in the community. Only in the case of serious problems as judged by social work professionals should alternative appropriate care services which place children outside of the home be provided. The Act allows for a child at serious risk to be taken into care on a voluntary basis or pursuant to a court order. Provisions for emergency situations where there is an immediate and serious risk to the health or welfare of the child are also included in the Act.

The Children Act 2001 for which the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has main responsibility brings about a major reform in the law relating to juvenile justice and the protection of children and makes provision for non-offending out of control children and children whose actions, but for their age, would be a criminal offence. The focus of the Act is to minimise the need and duration of detention. A number of pilot programmes have been put in place to cater for children's needs in their own communities.

There also exists a range of policy and related documents in this area, including the National Children's Strategy, the Children First Guidelines, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and, most recently, the Agenda for Children's Services, the overarching policy document of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs launched in December 2007. The agenda with its clear renewed emphasis on family support, coupled with reflective questions to enable service provider self evaluation, is part of the fundamental change now under way in respect of the formulation and delivery of Government policy in regard to children. It has been developed drawing on research and best practice at home and internationally. It requires an outcomes focus and integrated service delivery in line with the recommendations of the recent OECD report.

In this regard, it is worth noting that action has been taken on all key child welfare and protection related items in the National Children's Strategy with the pace of such action increasing significantly on virtually all fronts since the formation of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. In addition, there have been significant additional HSE-led actions such as the children services committees and the development of children's services plans under Towards 2016. These commitments are moving ahead in Dublin South, Dublin City, Limerick and Donegal and involve all public service providers in those areas.

I have been struck, in the short time since I took up my position, by the developments under the children services committees. I believe they are a model for the provision of excellent services across the statutory agencies. Members will be aware that there are in many areas of disadvantage various agencies trying to achieve the same end, namely, better outcomes for children. However, they often do not communicate or share information. We are bringing together for the first time the Garda Síochána, local authorities, VECs and schools in order to provide a strategy which will deliver better outcomes. Ultimately, I would like if the non-statutory agencies were involved. Developmental early intervention programmes jointly funded by Government and Atlantic Philanthropy are also being implemented.

All of these initiatives are aimed at producing better integrated inter-agency service provision. They also seek to provide for earlier intervention via much more comprehensive interlocking service provision for children based on clear planning aimed at agreed outcomes in line with the move to family support initiatives.

The establishment in 2006 of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, then known as the Office of the Minister for Children, was key to realising the goal of bringing greater coherence to policy making for children. The purpose was to bring together the agencies responsible for the development of policy in areas that affect children. Child policy sections from the Departments of Health and Children, Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform came together to create a new policy environment of cross departmental co-operation.

The office also maintains a general strategic oversight of bodies with responsibility for developing and delivering children's services. This integration between policy areas is already having a significant impact on improving outcomes for our young people and children. It is enabling better planning and improved communications between those key areas that must work in co-operation. Those working in child policy areas recognise how important it is that the health, education and justice sectors work together in all sectors of children's services.

An integrated approach is the only way to deliver better services and ensure improved outcomes for our children. The setting up and operation of my office in respect of inter-agency, integrated service provision has been praised in the recent OECD report on the Irish public service. That is a credit to the people who work in that office, to my predecessor, Deputy Brendan Smith, and, before him, Deputy Brian Lenihan.

Child protection is a key part of the agenda in the office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. An extensive programme of specialised residential provision for a small number of children and a range of other child welfare and family support services has been put in place in recent years. The HSE informs me that it has created over 300 new social work posts since the start of 2005.

Two days after the broadcast of the "Prime Time Investigates" programme I met with senior officials from the HSE to discuss, among other topics, the issues raised by that report. One of my primary concerns at this meeting was the issue of vulnerable children being placed on waiting lists for services. The HSE has assured me that in all cases where there is a serious and immediate risk to the health or welfare of a child, it responds immediately and takes appropriate action. All child abuse reports to social work departments are subject to a phased process of initial screening and assessment aimed at providing appropriate interventions. In addition, legislative mechanisms are in place to allow for responses from the Garda, such as, for example, the taking of children to safety in emergency situations.

I was informed also that a detailed consultation and reporting process is already underway to determine the current state of the waiting list issue. I expect a report detailing the outcome of this exercise before the end of June. In addition, I will chair regular meetings on child welfare and protection issues convened between senior officials of the HSE and my office.

In recent years there has been a rebalancing and readjustment of child welfare services towards early intervention and support for families in order to reduce the numbers of children who may become dependent on State care. This reflects the Government's policy of emphasising a preventive and supportive approach to child welfare. In many cases this is done in partnership with non-governmental agencies where the focus is on building capacity in vulnerable communities. This is in line with the principles of the Children Act 2001 regarding early intervention. Any parent or person with commonsense knows that early intervention is the key, particularly with children. If a child is neglected or abused this will eventually come to the attention of the State, most likely by way of criminality or truancy in the child' s later life, if services and welfare are not provided early enough.

A specific example of such community-based service development is the Springboard Family Support Programme, which is designed to improve the well-being of children and families in Ireland. All Springboard projects have a general strategy of being openly available to all families, parents and children in their communities, as well as a more specific strategy of working intensively with those who are most vulnerable. As with other family support programmes Springboard offers a range of interventions including individual work, group work, peer support, family work, advice and practical help. The HSE is committed to further development of the programme.

Another example of community-based family support services are the Youth Advocacy Programmes. Established on a pilot basis in 2002, these programmes provide supportive community-based alternatives for the care and protection of children most at risk. These programmes aim to maintain in their own homes young people who are at risk of out-of-home placement. There are currently five Youth Advocacy programmes in operation.

Increases in resources for child care and family support services have continued in recent years. In addition to the significant number of additional social work posts the HSE has created since 2005, funding of family support services has increased by 79% since 2003. This reflects the commitment of this Government and the HSE to the ongoing implementation of the National Children's Strategy and, most recently, the Agenda for Children's Services, already mentioned. Indeed, the HSE has made significant advances in many areas of children's services. A well-managed national approach is in operation, for example, dealing with the most needy children in HSE care, offering special care and high support.

In this regard I would like to place on record my appreciation for the work carried out by social work teams and their managers. These are hard working, dedicated people who must routinely deal with cases that are becoming ever more difficult, complex and intractable. They very often put themselves in harm's way.

I am aware that social work out-of-hours service proposals are currently under consideration by the HSE, my own office and the broader Department of Health and Children, to examine how this service can best be introduced nationwide. Notwithstanding this move towards a national approach, a number of out-of-hours service arrangements are in operation to part-cover this service around the country, in Dublin, for example, to deal with homelessness.

I should point out that not all services for children at risk must be provided by social workers. The HSE provides a multiplicity of services which can effectively address the needs of children at risk. Therapy, medical, nursing, psychological, community care and a very wide range of services benefiting children at risk are provided. In addition, non-governmental bodies provide key services for children and families at risk, on behalf of, or in tandem with, HSE services in areas such as residential care, foster care, community mentoring, family support schemes such as Springboard, Teen Parenting and Youth Advocacy, and in many other areas.

The latest information for children in care dates from March 2008. This shows that 5,362 children are in care. Of these, 406 are in residential care and 4,799 are in foster care. That latter figure is 88%, a higher percentage than in most other countries, and a great success. Other care arrangements are in place for 157 children, such as provision for remaining in the family home under care order. The identification of children at immediate and serious risk is, of course, a clinical decision, but professional social workers generally have no difficulty in perceiving what is an immediate and serious risk versus a less immediate risk. I would again emphasise that the HSE has stated that those at immediate serious risk are assessed and offered service.

The HSE has informed me that at the end of 2007, 90% of children in care have an allocated social worker and that social work services are available to all children in HSE care. It must also be made clear that child protection is the responsibility of everyone in society and particularly all public service providers including teachers and doctors. It is critical that everyone shoulders that responsibility.

The HSE service provision is guided by what it terms its "Children and Family Services Strategic Objectives". These seek to grant children the right to express views freely in all matters affecting them and to ensure that decision making in the planning and delivery of all children and family services is informed by an evaluated approach, based on empirical data from evidence-based research. The objectives also aim to re-orient supports and services so that they are fully integrated and easily accessible. They lay emphasis on prevention and early intervention, with a strong community based response. They further seek to ensure professional development and supervision to attract, retain and develop staff to support quality, child-centred service delivery.

The focus for development in the coming years is on preventive, community-based services which provide early intervention within a primary care context. The development of alternative care services will, over time, impact on the numbers of children in residential and foster care.

A differential model of service provision is also being considered by the HSE to respond to the needs of children at risk by directing them to protection or welfare and support services. This would counter the growing trend to classify large numbers of cases as child protection cases. International and Irish research indicates that in many situations cases can best be dealt with by way of welfare and care services which do not always require full-time social worker input to work well. My office and the HSE aim in this way to energise and involve communities in their own welfare and thereby effectively and validly reduce the later emergence of child protection issues.

The ongoing Child Care Information Project is initially implementing standard assessment and referral methods and thereafter moving on to better standardising national child protection procedures. This project, in tandem with other major standardisation projects such as the review of the Children First child protection guidelines, and the publication by HSE of its child protection framework, will work in synergy with the Knowledge Management Strategy for child welfare and protection, due to be completed in summer 2008. This will work to ensure availability of better information, improved communication and application of research findings to service provision, management evaluation and policy analysis. As these initiatives indicate, the HSE is well aware of the need to work from well-defined information and evidence; and not from uncorroborated anecdote. It is, however, essential that the evidence used is robust validated material.

While I am disturbed at any suffering by children I am confident that my office and the HSE can together ensure significantly improved and better integrated child welfare and protection services for all children who need such services. The work I have described shows how much is being done to realise this objective.

The development of robust, responsive and appropriate child welfare and protection services is a priority for both myself and this Government. The National Children's Strategy was published in 2000. Its vision was described thus:

An Ireland where children are respected as young citizens with a valued contribution to make and a voice of their own; where all children are cherished and supported by family and the wider society; where they enjoy a fulfilling childhood and realise their potential.

It is my intention to do everything I can to realise this aim.

I welcome this debate which gives us an important forum with the Minister of State to discuss the issues highlighted in the "Prime Time Investigates" report. Those of us who take an interest in this area are all too familiar with the waiting lists and the difficulties families have in accessing services, even where serious problems exist. What "Prime Time Investigates" told us was not new. However, it illustrated in a dramatic way some of the problems in the area.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I congratulate him on his new appointment, which is an important role. No one has the high moral ground on this. Everybody wants to see the best services in place for those who need them. A number of issues concern me about the "Prime Time Investigates" programme and the responses given by the Minister of State today which I will highlight. I do not want this discussion to be seen as rhetoric or posturing. I hope it will have a real impact on the services available and on the Minister of State's interest and action.

The "Prime Time Investigates" investigation showed the shocking situation of many children and the failure to respond with the services they need. The issue predates the programme. A commission of inquiry is examining inadequacies in child care services during the latter half of the 20th century. A redress board is paying compensation to victims who experienced sexual abuse in residential care in this country. Have we learned from the past and are we doing things differently now?

The Minister of State was clear about the resource issue. We come from a low base in this regard and we needed these resources. The resources may be enough but what is happening? Why are the front-line services not receiving them? This is a key question which is raised with regard to health all of the time but is also relevant to child care services. The best ally of abuse and neglect is denial. We have seen this in the past where people in positions of responsibility did not believe children, dismissed concerns and brushed the issue under the carpet.

I am concerned that denial is not confined to history but is current. Take the "Prime Time Investigates" programme and the response from the HSE. I do not want to vilify the people working in this area in the HSE who are trying to do what they can. I am concerned about the reaction which showed a level of denial. I am also concerned about the Taoiseach's response in the Dáil. He stated great progress has been made and that resources are in place. This misses the point that children are at risk and the structures are failing.

I welcome the statement by the Minister of State that he was troubled by those cases. I am glad to hear this because the Minister of State should be troubled, as should the officials. These individual cases tell the story that families do not receive a service and the question must be asked as to why. In his speech, the Minister of State stated he was reassured by the HSE that, ". . . in all cases where there is a serious and immediate risk to the health or welfare of a child, it responds immediately and takes appropriate action." Is the Minister of State convinced about this? I suggest he meets the front-line staff and teams.

I hope he will do so as a new Minister of State in this area. The word on the ground from people working in child psychiatry making referrals to social services is that the teams are under severe pressure. This is not just anecdotal. People on maternity leave are not replaced. Some of this boils down to what the HSE means by "serious and immediate risk". Will the Minister of State tell us what this means? The word is that social workers are not allocated to many serious cases or children are not assessed quickly enough and are being ignored. This is of concern to me.

The Minister of State's speech contains a contradiction where he states, "I was informed also that a detailed consultation and reporting process is already under way to determine the current state of the waiting list issue." If the HSE does not know the cases on the waiting list or does not have a breakdown of the type of cases waiting to be seen, how can the Minister of State categorically state in a previous paragraph that the HSE has re-assured him, "...that in all cases where there is a serious and immediate risk to the health or welfare of a child, the HSE responds immediately"? Will the Minister of State examine this because I do not believe it is convincing.

This may not be a resource issue. It may be a question of where the resources are going, recruitment or the size of the teams responding to the increased needs. Will the Minister of State take on board the point about denial because it is a key issue? People have a tendency to state it is not true when children need services. It is in our history and it seems to be a repeating pattern.

The programme gave many statistics, which belie what the Minister of State stated. A total of 374 social work cases in the north Dublin area have not been properly assessed. In central Dublin, the waiting list for a child to be given a social worker is up to one year. In Kerry, a child may expect to endure a waiting list of three and a half years for a psychiatric report. As we speak, the Cavan-Monaghan child psychiatry service is closed as is the Kildare service, which is not even taking referrals for a waiting list.

What is a parent of a psychotic 13 year old to do if there is no local child and family service or mental health service available? Have guidelines been provided to GPs in those counties who will see children who require immediate service? Will the Minister of State take an interest in this aspect of emergency services? They are not available at present.

Will the Minister of State tell the House how many children classified as at risk are on waiting lists and receive no psychiatric or social care intervention? How many are at risk who have not yet been classified? The previous Minister of State, who has been promoted to the position of Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was unable to answer these questions in the Dáil.

I am concerned that the social workers who co-operated with the "Prime Time Investigates" report had to do so anonymously. I was a social worker before entering politics. Why do well-trained social workers feel they cannot speak out either through their union——

——or directly to the Minister of State and speak about their experiences? What guidelines were issued to them about speaking to the media? Why can we not hear their voices publicly and hear what they have to state about the delivery of service? During the recent negotiations on the consultants contract an attempt was made to prevent consultants speaking of their experiences of the health service. Nobody is going to talk about individual cases. However, I am extremely concerned about the fact that people working with the most vulnerable in our society did not feel they could speak out publicly without risk of something happening to them within their work setting.

Will the Minister of State examine this? It would be worth his while to speak to the front-line teams to hear about their experiences. The workers in the field should have the confidence to speak out about their direct experiences in the interests of children and families. What has happened to prevent them from doing so? They do not do so for the sake of it. They are not trying to pretend an emergency exists when it does not. They are genuine people. Why do they feel they must go on "Prime Time Investigates" anonymously? Will the Minister of State examine what guidelines have been issued and why professionals do not feel they are able to speak about their experiences in a proper context in an open society?

It is the HSE culture.

I refer to the number of children who have gone missing in the asylum process and otherwise. For example, one of the Kenyan girls who went missing was aged 11. The Minister of State said the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is responsible for them. Can his Department liaise with that Department and the Garda to ensure proper searches are carried out and proper attempts are made to find out what happened to these young people who are trafficked and who are probably the most marginalised and vulnerable in Europe? A systematic response is needed when such children go missing involving both Departments and the Garda.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I congratulate him on his elevation to high office and I wish him well in his tenure. "Prime Time Investigates", as I said on the Order of Business earlier, has become a valuable programme. The makers should be congratulated on the programmes they produce every Monday evening. The week before last, welfare and protection services for children were investigated, which led to this debate, and last Monday, cyber bullying, which also affects children, was investigated. I have asked for a debate on bullying.

The issues highlighted by the programme over the past two weeks are very emotive. They set everybody thinking and talking and I am delighted the House has an opportunity to debate them. The programme last Monday week highlighted the significant number of children on waiting lists who may never be seen or dealt with by a social worker. We were told they were numbers in filing cabinets. Social workers would never get around to them. I found that hard to believe and when I made inquiries, I was told that although the children may not be allocated a social worker, it does not mean they will never be seen because sometimes the social worker refers them to the services mentioned by the Minister of State and suggest to families they should self-refer to an voluntary organisation such as those mentioned by him run by the HSE.

The cases outlined in the television programme were worrying, particularly that of the foster child. When she was well enough and felt secure, she was permitted to partake in home visits to her natural parents. However, when she returned to the foster home, she was disturbed and upset. This was reported by the foster mother but she was not listened to until the child began to show more visible signs of distress. The case was examined and it transpired the young girl was being abused at home by her father, and her mother was not capable of doing anything about it. Many voluntary organisations say child physical and sexual abuse is on the increase and, in most cases, a member of the wider family is the perpetrator.

This issue is about societal values and not about health or money. Family supports in the 21st century need to be examined, as we are challenged by alcohol and drug abuse. Some parents rearing children are alcohol and drug dependent. This is a different family support from those I experienced when I was growing up. Such supports were associated with health and poverty and people providing food for families in need. These supports are not as relevant nowadays and that is why issues such as drug and alcohol abuse need to be examined.

I was delighted the Minister of State stated his office and the HSE aim to energise and involve communities in their own welfare. I am thrilled because the HSE needs to priorities services at community level. Over the past three weeks in the run up to Deputy Brian Cowen taking over as Taoiseach, he referred in a number of addresses to community values and people looking after each other like they did in the past. One must go forward, not back, but if the caring and sharing values we adopted as communities in the past could be brought to the fore again, it would not be a bad thing.

In preparing for the debate, I visited two family centres run by the Daughters of Charity, a voluntary organisation. The centres offer therapeutic and counselling services. I was full of admiration for the work they are doing. I had a sense of it not being all about money. Significant money is being invested but they would like further evaluation of the services they provide and a survey conducted of where money is spent to ascertain if it is delivering what is needed by those availing of the services. The staff I met were first class. They meet those who come knocking on their doors. A mother could arrive with a young son who is troublesome in school and help is needed. When they talk to the young boy, they realise he is acting up because his mother is not giving him attention and when they talk to the mother, they establish she has a drug or alcohol problem. When they try to get to the bottom of that issue, she says she is that way because the child's father beats her. When they talk to the father, he has a problem with his mother or father. There are generational links. If we can provide for the child, we must also provide for the wider family and that is what these voluntary groups are doing.

The Daughters of Charity stressed the importance of education for young mothers because that would help them become confident and competent. They would then look forward to meeting people but they live in disadvantaged areas. Their children attend local primary schools and are taught by the same teachers who taught them. Parents sometimes feel the teacher had a set on them as a youngster and they now have a set on their child. That is probably not the case but the mind of the young parent needs to be opened by educating him or her. This service is offered in a number of deprived areas in Dublin and it is working. Barriers are being broken down. I would like the Minister of State to examine this option as a way forward.

The Minister of State said the provision of services between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, is not ideal. An out-of-hours service is provided in a number of areas but such a service must be expanded. The Minister of State said we have come from a low base ten years ago. The Ferns Report was debated by the previous Seanad. The OECD has recognised the advances Ireland has made but the Opposition might say they are not sufficient. Perhaps they are not but at least they are a start and we are going forward. An Ombudsman for Children, Ms Emily Logan, is in place. I have met her because I sit on the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children which is doing great work. I heard the Minister of State speak in the past week since his appointment. A total of 1,000 new posts will be created in the Health Service Executive and the embargo will be lifted in 2008. I think the Minister of State said that 200 of those posts will be in the front-line area where they are needed. There has been a 79% increase in funding. Again, it was coming from a low base but at least it is a start.

It is incumbent on us as legislators, citizens and parents to deplore any neglect of children. We should call on all people to actively report any abuse of children we see, even at a very minor scale. As the Minister of State said, early intervention is the key. Even if it is very small, it should still be reported.

I have spoken to the Minister of State about an out-of-hours service. We need to revisit this, especially in light of the tragedies in Wexford in the past 18 months.

With the permission of the House, I wish to share time with my colleague, Senator Norris. I will speak for seven minutes, while Senator Norris will speak for three minutes if that is agreeable.

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I also echo the words of the others in welcoming the Minister of State to the House and congratulating him on his new appointment. I very much welcome the words in his speech to the effect that he would make it a priority to provide services to some of the most vulnerable young members of our society. We all agree that the protection of vulnerable children should be a key priority of the Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs.

There is a great deal in the Minister of State's speech with which we can all agree. Much of it is like motherhood and apple pie — little that is controversial and much that is very positive. The Minister of State spoke of the need to ensure integrated services for child protection. Clearly, that is important. He spoke of the need to ensure early intervention which, again, is vital. He spoke of the need to provide family and community-based supports for children at risk. Again, there is no disagreement there. He also spoke of the great appreciation we all must feel for the great and immense work being done by social work teams. We all agree with that.

Unfortunately, the reality does not reflect the noble aspirations and very positive things said by the Minister of State in his speech. It must be noted that in the very short time since the integrated Office of the Minister for Children has been created, three Ministers have already held that position: Deputy Brian Lenihan, Deputy Brendan Smith and the current Minister of State. This in itself is symptomatic of a problem, which is that each Minister of State may have very noble aspirations and very positive commitments but they simply have not had the time for those commitments and aspirations to bear fruit. Each Minister of State is beginning again in terms of making priorities, commitments and so on. That is a real problem.

Other speakers have mentioned the wonderful "Prime Time Investigates" programme which has done us a great service in terms of public service broadcasting in bringing to us the reality of the situation for children at risk. Perhaps I should say that I have a small amount of knowledge in the area and should declare an interest in that I have worked as a barrister and appeared in what used to be called the Health Board Court in Dolphin House, so I have seen some of what is happening on the ground. Certainly, the "Prime Time Investigates" programme made us very much aware of the great difficulties facing social workers in providing a service to protect children at risk and to support children who are in care.

I know for a fact that many social workers are very concerned by the response of the Health Service Executive to the issues raised in the programme. The HSE spokesperson on the programme asserted that children at serious risk receive appropriate social work support services. This was said and repeated in the Minister of State's speech despite the fact that HSE managers throughout the country are regularly advised and are made aware by social work teams of the real inadequacies in terms of service. In his speech, the Minister of State said, and I believe it is accepted, that the HSE has 5,362 children in its care at present. What is buried in the figures is that he then said that 90% of those children in care, to whom the HSE bears a statutory responsibility, have an allocated social worker. Clearly, what this means is that 10% do not. We are talking about more than 500 children in care to whom the HSE bears a statutory responsibility yet who do not have an allocated social worker. That is a matter that should be of serious concern to us all. That figure of 10% does not take into account how many of the 90% have allocated social workers who may have too heavy a caseload to be able to take on the full responsibility and provide the fully adequate service to the children for whom they are responsible.

What do these inadequacies mean? They mean that children in care may never have the opportunity to build up a relationship with a social worker, may not have adequate plans made for immediate and future care and may have plans made that are simply incapable of being followed through. Follow-through is a real problem, particularly in respect of plans made for them when they reach adulthood and are coming out of HSE care but simply cannot be abandoned into society. These are children who have already been abused or neglected at home and who have already been let down by those responsible for them and by those to whom they should be closest, yet they are again being abused or certainly being let down by the State services. This is nothing short of serious neglect by the State.

The HSE response to this issue, as reported on "Prime Time Investigates", was less than adequate and betrayed a certain complacency in the approach of the executive to children in care. The official spokesperson stated that "we will probably never get to 100% in terms of the protection of children at risk but we would like maybe to get to 95%, 96%" and that this is "probably as best, as good as it can be". That indicates a certain complacency in respect of the predicament and the serious situation for vulnerable children in Ireland today. While saying that children at serious risk would immediately have services available to them, he also admitted that he did not think any manager of child welfare services would say that they were very comfortable with the way things are. Again, that is a serious admission. He said that:

As long as there remain children out there who are vulnerable or whose needs are not being fully met, we have an obligation and a desire to meet those needs. I think a huge amount has been achieved in recent years but at the same time, a lot more has to be done.

That much is certainly true. A lot more must be done. As Senator Fitzgerald has said, the difficulty with making plans to do more and provide the adequate services that are required is where the services themselves are in denial about the problem. That is where the "Prime Time Investigates" programme has done great value in making us more aware, but it is unfortunate that the HSE appears to be somewhat in denial. I think there was a veiled attack on the critics of the HSE in the Minister of State's speech where he said that claims made about the HSE services should not be working off uncorroborated anecdote. I do not think there was an attempt to do that in the programme. I would like to hear the Minister of State say how many cases he and HSE believe a social worker appropriately should have in terms of a caseload. It is clear to us that if 500 children have no allocated social worker, there are many more who may have an allocated social worker but are simply not getting the service they need because their social worker's caseload is too heavy.

I thank my colleague, Senator Bacik, for sharing some of her time with me. I also welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him well in his career. I think he is a very appropriate choice because I happen to know him slightly but I have also been very impressed by the highly capable, intelligent and humane way he has dealt with matters such as this and other politically related matters in the media in recent weeks. As they say in the country, he comes from a good stable. With a father and an uncle like his, he could not but start with good credibility in this area.

I was especially impressed by one part of his speech where he said that: "Two days after the broadcast of the "Prime Time Investigates" programme I met with senior officials from the HSE to discuss, among other topics, the issues raised by that report." It may not be that everything is satisfactory. We know precisely from what Senator Fitzgerald said in a most impassioned speech and also from what Senator Bacik said that things are far from well. That is a good example of what the Minister of State called for in the case of children — early intervention. He intervened early, took action and met people.

I am concerned about other things. Senator Bacik put on the record of the House a number of matters about which I am concerned, as did Senator Fitzgerald. I have been briefed in this area previously by people who are morbidly concerned that if they are employed in this area, their managerial level will find out about it. Will the Minister of State seek to provide a whistle-blower's charter for people within the Health Service Executive? However good "Prime Time Investigates" is, it should not come directly from a television programme but from within and from consultation. People should feel protected when they voice legitimate concerns to Members of this House. It is not appropriate for Members of the Oireachtas to receive submissions from people who plead with us not to reveal their identities for fear of damaging their careers.

The Minister of State spoke of support for families to reduce the number of children who may become dependent on State care. That is not sufficient and is far too weak. While I abhor comments such as those reported in the British House of Commons that the most dangerous place to be is in the mother's womb, which is a frightful comment to make on the abortion debate, we must be very careful about suggesting that the family is the safest place for a child because that is not always so. Child abuse very frequently takes place within the family. Children need to be protected within the family but if a difficulty exists, it is not appropriate just to produce supports while the child remains in situ. I am thinking here of the case of Ms Maria Colville whose return by the social services to her family resulted in her murder. As a result of that case, Seanad Éireann introduced the guardian ad litem clause to protect vulnerable children in that area. Of the 5,000 children who are at risk, there are many for whom no plans are made or such plans that are made are not followed through. Those children have been seriously let down and are a parallel to the children who were abused in institutions.

I wish to ask the Minister of State a number of questions, one or two of which have already been posed by Senator Bacik. Can he tell the House the percentage of children in the care of the Health Service Executive with an allocated social worker? How many cases does the Minister of State and the HSE believe is appropriate, in terms of good social work practice, for a social worker to have on his or her caseload? How many cases, on average, are allocated to HSE social workers in child and family services? How many cases currently are open within the HSE social work department in child and family services? How many cases are unallocated within the service? I would be grateful if the Minister of State would answer these simple and direct questions.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and wish him every success in his new position. I do not wish to repeat the concerns and issues raised by my colleagues so far but will use the time available to raise some additional issues and thoughts. I welcome this debate, which is essential. This is an issue which has touched everyone in our society. It has been the main topic of conversation for the past week and has given rise to anxiety, concern and much soul searching.

Often when one thinks of child welfare and child protection, one thinks in terms of an urgent response to an emergency situation. That clearly is one aspect of the issue but if we are serious about delivering the best possible child welfare, we must ensure our mindset is not limited only to this aspect. There are other aspects that are essential for the delivery of child welfare that reflect a positive and proactive promotion of well-being. Putting in place measures that promote the well-being of children and that can detect risk, identify indicators and allow for effective intervention can prevent the occurrence of emergency situations in the first place. More importantly, such measures can prevent the infliction of hurt, pain and damage that such emergency situations bring with them. The Health Service Executive child welfare and protection service strives to do this and the individuals working in this service work extremely hard and are very committed to best practice and ensuring they deliver the best possible service to the children with whom they work.

I take this opportunity, with the Minister of State present, to outline briefly some issues, challenges and possible measures to be taken in both reactive and preventative aspects of child welfare. On the issue of the measures in place to respond to emergency situations, I welcome that the HSE has initiated a detailed consultation and reporting process to ascertain the current state of the waiting list issues raised on "Prime Time". This exercise is expected to be completed and a report prepared for the Minister of State before the end of June. It is essential we have accurate information. I suggest that the aforementioned report be accompanied by proposals on how the identified need on the waiting list can be tackled.

It is imperative that public confidence is maintained in the State's capacity to respond and intervene in the protection of children. It is essential we do not send out the message that if somebody is concerned about the protection of a child, there is little point in coming forward. That is not the case.

I welcome the fact that the Minister of State will chair regular meetings between officials of the HSE and the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. I also welcome that the HSE is recruiting 47 social workers to fill some of the 158 current vacancies and that 335 social posts have been created since 2005. I ask the Minister of State if a timeframe for filling the remaining vacancies has been established.

I understand that the Children First guidelines are under review. Can the Minister of State indicate when this review will be completed? The Children First guide and handbook provides excellent information not only for State services but also for community, voluntary and sporting organisations which are keen to play a role in the protection of children and to ensure they are in keeping with best practice.

The vetting and training of all individuals who work with children plays a crucial role in preserving the safety of children. I welcome the role played by the Garda vetting unit and the extension of the vetting service to voluntary organisations. At present, this is a useful tool only in the screening of individuals with prior convictions but is of incalculable value. We will have to face up to the dilemma concerning the use of soft information and data other than that relating to convictions. Information that can also be considered as soft is often gleaned by the HSE and its child protection services. Consideration of how we use such information in the future presents us with a difficult dilemma. However, this issue is being considered by an all-party Oireachtas Committee, which I welcome. Considerable work is being undertaken by all Members to meet the challenges and to ensure the strongest possible vetting procedures are in place to maximise the protection of children in a manner that is appropriately balanced with justice for individuals.

It is essential that all people working with children are trained in keeping with best practice, are familiar with guidelines such as Children First, are aware of indicators that a child may be at risk or in distress and are familiar with how to respond and the appropriate action to take. I welcome that the social work out-of-hours service proposals from the HSE are under consideration to determine how this service can best be introduced nationwide. There are a number of out-of-hours service arrangements in place to partially cover need throughout the country.

It is appropriate to note that social work teams, their management and the people who support them, who must routinely work with difficult and complex issues, are very hard-working and dedicated. Given this, it is essential to ensure supports for people who work on the front line are in place to enable them to work at their most effective at all times. I welcome the various support programmes that have been undertaken by the HSE in conjunction with bodies such as the Family Support Agency which provides valuable parenting capacity building, play skills, behaviour management programmes and so forth.

I wish to refer to a few groups of children who are especially at risk. I welcome the extension of the inspection of residential services to residential services for children with disabilities. These were previously exempt from inspection, which was unacceptable given the particular vulnerability of their clients. I also draw the Minister of State's attention to the residential services provided by the HSE for unaccompanied minors and take this opportunity to raise the plight of approximately 400 such children who are unaccounted for who were registered with the HSE. These children are clearly vulnerable and have no one to speak up for them or to monitor the search and efforts to locate them.

Could an agreed protocol be put in place for any such child who goes missing with a more robust protocol for anyone seeking to claim custody of such a child? At present it is only required that the child and the adult who comes forward to claim the child would have a similar story. That is not sufficiently robust to protect the unaccompanied minor. The Minister of State might consider the value of appointing advocates for such children, as they clearly do not have anyone else to speak up for them.

Will the Minister of State also consider the plight of families where parents have an intellectual disability? An increasing number of such families are coming to light where the intellectual disability was not initially picked up and the necessary supports were not put in place. The children of these families come before the HSE child protection services and their cases end up in the courts system, which causes considerable distress to the children and their parents, in respect of whom supports could have been put in place previously.

I wish the Minister of State all the best in this challenging portfolio and I thank the Cathaoirleach for his indulgence.

I also congratulate the Minister of State and wish him every success in his difficult portfolio. I am sure if there is any help we can give him, we would not be remiss in doing so.

The areas of welfare and protection services for children are wide and varied. They range from catering to the very basic needs that must be met for all children to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of those children whose care rests with the State. One of the areas of major concern to me is that of the plight of adolescents in need of urgent psychiatric assessment and care. The HSE recently responded to a parliamentary question on the appalling lack of available beds for such adolescents, with a promise of 18 further beds being brought into service over the course of the remainder of 2008. It also pledged that of the 3,598 children currently awaiting assessment, 70% will be seen within 12 months. Today, there are only 12 beds available in Ireland for the treatment of these children and the HSE seems to consider that sanctioning a further 18 beds will be tantamount to waving a magic wand which will almost immediately solve the problem.

While I am aware that the majority of those on the waiting list will not need inpatient care, I find it difficult to believe that the provision of these extra beds, a drop in the ocean compared to the overall number of beds in service under the HSE, will have the desired effect. In the meantime families are at their wits' end, some of whom I know, who cannot leave their children out of their sight for fear of them self-harming or attempting suicide. This is a very real problem, particularly when one knows somebody in this situation. The case of the person I know has been flagged as urgent and all that goes with that, but a bed has still not been made available for this individual. This is an immediate problem that has a detrimental effect on many people's lives — many more people than the lives of the family concerned — and it must be prioritised with real targets and realisable goals set.

Another issue that needs to be investigated as a matter of importance is the provision of a child psychology service and the waiting lists associated with this service. I have been contacted by a number of clients whose children have been referred for psychological assessment by their general practitioners. One case in particular stands out, where a six year old child, suffering from severe psychological problems, was referred by her general practitioner 18 months ago to the local psychology department in South Tipperary General Hospital. At the time her mother was informed that she could expect to have her child seen and assessed within six to 12 months. When no appointment was received some months later, the mother again contacted the Department to be told that the waiting period had extended to 18 months and she could now expect an appointment at some stage in that timeframe. Last week she received a letter from the psychology department stating that the waiting list is now running at two years and so it had to be temporarily closed. The current plan is to offer those on the waiting list a one-off appointment, which would allow the professionals to redirect the client appropriately. No doubt following this one-off assessment, this child will be placed on yet another waiting list.

My impression is that this deterioration in this service coincides closely with the HSE staff embargo because it is having an effect across such a range of services. It is difficult for the Minister of State in his brief to prioritise which service is more needy and depending on whom he is representing at a time, each case would merit that it should be given sufficient resources to meet its needs. Staff are being lost through various routes and are simply not being replaced, as is the case in so many other services managed by the HSE. On consultation with other health professionals employed elsewhere in Ireland, I am aware that this is not an isolated case — other waiting lists have also been closed temporarily for some time with no sign of being re-opened. Only emergency referrals are seen at short notice and the chances of the existing waiting lists being cleared in any timely fashion seems remote.

Once again vital frontline services have been eroded and children's welfare put at risk because the HSE cannot manage its budget adequately. Early intervention is so important in many of these cases to minimise anti-social behaviour in later years, and it is a false economy to curtail such services in the interest of offsetting vital funds against budget overruns.

I remember working in a paediatric unit as an innocent student nurse when I thought that if babies got sick, they were treated, got well and were sent home. I recall an infant having a skeletal survey when admitted because of various aspects of bruising. This baby was only ten weeks old and it had 11 fractures at various stages of healing. I remember being very upset about that. The baby was put immediately on an at-risk register and taken into foster care because the services at that time would have dealt with such a case in a timely fashion. I do not know what the outcome was for that child, but I am sure the child had a better outcome than we can expect for children in similar circumstances today.

Previous speakers expressed concern about a welfare and protection issue that has been vigorously highlighted in the media relating to the HSE's management of the care and ultimate disappearance of an astonishing number of immigrant children. Despite numerous media discussions around the issue in recent months, we have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation from the HSE. I am horrified about this issue. I cannot conceive how 388 children — the figure may now be more than 400 — in the care of the HSE have simply vanished over the past seven years. It seems that the majority of those missing are immigrant children who arrived in Ireland without parents and were taken into care for their own protection. We know now that these children were frequently housed in inadequately supervised HSE accommodation, where there are no on-site child care workers. While the HSE is responsible for the safety and care of such vulnerable children, it is imperative that the essential structures and services are put in place to ensure that these children cannot be exploited in any way while under our protection. The statistic in this regard is horrifying.

When a child tragically went missing in Portugal, the search for her knew no borders. It was highlighted on every news channel and every man, woman and child in Europe knew that this had happened within 24 hours. Yet here in Ireland all these children went missing and we did not hear a word about it. This is bordering on the criminal, if only for the fact that broadcasting these children's photographs and statistics might have resulted in their being identified by the public and returned to safety.

While I welcome the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act, which will come into force in June, outlawing the trafficking of children for any purpose, it will be impossible to implement the letter of this law if we cannot initially provide a truly safe haven and adequate supervision for these children who come to Ireland in uncertain circumstances.

I would like to highlight an area that I previously raised with Professor Drumm. Every child is entitled to a developmental check-up to ensure that he or she is meeting his or her milestones and also to pick up potential health or physical problems he or she may have. The optimum time for the developmental check-up to be carried out is at nine months, but in recent times many children were not being called until they were two or three years old, which for some children was too late to deal with deficits, perhaps in hearing or other behavioural problems, that could have been addressed if they were picked up at the optimum time for the check-up.

The HSE recently introduced measures to address this backlog, resulting in children being called to be seen by a public health nurse at between nine and 11 months old. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that the present staffing embargo will not negatively impact on the new measures, and that children will continue to be seen at nine months old in accordance with best practice and recognised standards of care.

A recommendation in one of the reports into the death of a young child was that a trained children's nurse should be on duty in all accident and emergency departments in the interests of prompt diagnosis of children with potential problems, a issue I raised on this morning's Order of Business. While recommendations in any report are always difficult to implement, if there is a paediatric unit in a hospital we should go some way towards ensuring a system is in place that the some degree of the necessary expertise will be available to assess a child over whom there is a query about their condition in the interests of ensuring best practice. With the best will in the world, one will always get co-operation and, as would be said in a hospital setting, such intervention amounts to fire-fighting techniques. Staff are more than willing to help in a situation where they can prevent greater problems later on.

The Minister of State has a very difficult brief. He referred to many initiatives, which I welcome. I compliment him on the way he dealt with the media the morning after the "Prime Time Investigates" programme. While I am not casting aspersions on any of the previous holders of his office, I believe we have someone in charge who will fully engage with personnel to ensure the best possible outcome for our children because they are worth it.

I welcome the Minister of State, congratulate him on his new portfolio and wish him well.

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his promotion. It is not an enviable task. The "Prime Time Investigates" programme has concentrated much public attention on the Minister of State's area of responsibility and that is the context in which this debate is taking place. It is always important not to respond in a reactive way to media-generated headlines but many of the issues and gaps in services highlighted in the programme are a real concern and I know the Minister of State will look at them during his time in office.

Rather than focus on some of the claims made in the programme, I would prefer to look at the broader policy framework in which child protection occurs in this State. I will start with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Ireland signed up without reservation in 1992. The convention places a positive duty on the State to protect and support children and their families. Article 19 of that convention states:

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the establishment of social programmes to provide necessary support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement.

I refer to an official assessment of the State's performance carried out by the Children's Rights Alliance which produced a report entitled, From Rhetoric to Rights, Second Shadow Report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. This report reflected its views on the progress made by the State and it was published in March 2006. While approximately two years have elapsed, the findings of the report pretty much echo some of the findings of the "Prime Time Investigates" programme on this issue.

In regard to services for those most at risk, the shadow report stated:

Significant numbers of children in Ireland experience disadvantage, including those living in poverty, early school-leavers, homeless young people, those living with addiction or mental illness (either their own or that of a parent) or those who are part of a disadvantaged ethnic minority. Much more needs to be done to support these children and their families through comprehensive preventive and early intervention services (rather than crisis intervention only), to coordinate the services targeted at these children, and to ensure that allocated funding produces positive outcomes.

These themes are consistent throughout the report. There is a big emphasis on preventive and early intervention services. There is a critique of the fact that much of the funding and official services tend to be focused on crisis intervention and there is repeated reference to the fact that services are not as well co-ordinated as they should be. Evaluation is also highlighted as is the importance of ensuring the funding allocated to these services produces positive outcomes.

Another important issue highlighted in the report is inappropriate services and placements. The report points out that inappropriate services are often used to treat troubled children — those with mental health or behavioural difficulty, those who are in contact with the criminal justice system and those for whom there are abuse concerns. The report states that because of a lack of adequate planning, investment and co-ordination in regard to both crisis and preventive services, the line is often blurred between welfare, criminal and health interventions.

It further states:

In this context, the response to the needs of children with complex problems is too often determined by whatever service is available, even if the placement is inappropriate or potentially damaging. For example, children have been inappropriately placed in youth detention centres (when they have not committed a crime) and in adult psychiatric hospitals.

The report calls on the Government to actively commit itself to fulfil its obligations to children under the convention by creating sufficient and appropriate welfare, preventive and rehabilitative services that take into account children's best interests.

As far as family support services are concerned, the report welcomes the establishment of the Family Support Agency in 1998 but points out that family support services lack an integrated structure, that the availability of services varies greatly across the country and that responsibility for the services is split between two agencies, the Health Service Executive, which is responsible for individual families at risk, and the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which is responsible for general community-based family support services. It also points out that seven other Departments have responsibility for certain programmes for families and children and that there is a reliance by the Government on community groups to provide many family services. However, it points out that the sector is under-resourced and under-supported to deal with the range of issues it confronts.

The report usefully suggests that a comprehensive audit of all support services for families and children provided by the Health Service Executive and the Department of Social and Family Affairs is needed to identify where services are being provided, where there are gaps and to assess the quality of services. It recommends that this audit would be the basis for the development of a comprehensive support services strategy to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families and those with special needs.

The report also suggests that the support services strategy drawn up should provide for the evaluation of outcomes of family support services and for the mainstreaming of examples of best practice. It adds that parents and children, who are the beneficiaries of these services, should be involved in the implementation and evaluation processes.

As I mentioned, the report emphasises prevention over crisis intervention and states that a key issue which a support services strategy must address is the fact that at present, the capacity and focus of social services is limited to crisis intervention and child protection and the result is that preventive and support services are seriously under-developed. It calls for the provision of multidisciplinary professional teams to provide preventive and therapeutic services to move the emphasis away from crisis intervention.

However, it also points out that there are ongoing difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified and experienced staff and that this must be addressed. It suggests that one of the ways this could be done is through providing workers with adequate inservice support, supervision and training. Lack of the above is thought to be the reason for much of the problem in holding on to experienced staff.

The report refers to the need for a 24-hour social work service. It points out that HSE social work services are not available outside office hours with the exception of a service for homeless children in Dublin on weekdays and that the absence of a general out of hours social work service is delaying the implementation of the youth justice diversionary provisions in the Children Act 2001.

The report calls for the publication of two Government reviews of compliance with the Children First guidelines, the non-statutory guidelines on procedures for preventing child abuse and responding to allegations and suspicions of abuse.

The recommendations of the report, which are very comprehensive, apply today even though the report was drawn up two years ago. They include placing the Children First guidelines on a statutory footing; developing a national child abuse prevention strategy; establishing a 24-hour seven-day-week social work service; ensuring adequate levels of support for staff, including social workers and better supports; conducting an audit of all support services for families and children provided by both the HSE and the Department of Social and Family Affairs and to use this as the basis for a comprehensive support services strategy to meet the needs of all families; implementing a plan of action to provide training in the Children First guidelines to all professionals and volunteers working with children; systematically involving children and parents in designing support services and policies; implementing on a national level the recommendations made in Listen to Me! Children's Experience of Domestic Violence; and, revising the Children First guidelines to take specific account of the needs of migrant children.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, congratulate him on his new post and wish him well for the future. I wish to raise two specific issues, namely, missing children, an issue which has been raised by many Senators, and the serious understaffing of social workers in Galway city, which leads to serious child protection concerns.

Since 2000, some 441 children have gone missing, 338 of whom are still unaccounted for. Recently it was reported that five Kenyan children between the ages of 11 and 17 are still missing. I want the Minister of State to instigate an immediate review of security procedures at HSE care facilities and to find out what supervision and monitoring exists in these facilities. Where is the outrage with regard to these missing children? If we were in another country and this was mine or the Minister's child, we would want to know the issue was being addressed and that such cases were being followed up. We need an interdepartmental response on this issue.

In 2007 there were 1,586 new referrals for the Galway city area on child protection issues, some 50% of which related to non-national children. In other words, over 750 referrals related to non-national children. These referrals related to children as young as seven being left minding babies, many cases of physical chastisement and cramped living conditions in both homes and hostels. However, while 130 children were taken into care in the region in 2007, only ten of them were non-nationals. I find this curious. Is it the case that we do not give the same priority to non-national children?

Ireland is a civilised and humane nation, but the fact we do not follow up on missing children leads me to suspect that we do not give due attention to the protection of children of the non-national community. The child protection issues about which I am concerned are neglect of an emotional, physical and sexual nature and child welfare issues. I urge the Minister of State to follow up on this issue, with particular regard to the non-national community.

The main issue of concern I wish to raise is the issue of understaffing of social workers in Galway city. This area has a population of approximately 180,000 and includes Oranmore, Kinvara, Clarinbridge, Claregalway and Gort. This issue came to my attention a year ago when a mother came to me about her out of control teenager who was putting her two-year old child at serious risk in the home. The situation involved drug and alcohol abuse and physical violence. The mother in question was trying to survive as a single parent with a teenage son who was out of control. She asked me to intervene and get help from the social workers. I called the duty worker who gave me a hearing and led me to believe that the issue would be addressed immediately. Two weeks later, the mother contacted me to say there had been no intervention and the situation was still as bad as ever. I telephoned the social work department again, only to find out it had no staff to send out to examine the situation. This was the case one year ago.

To my horror, the situation is even worse today, which confirms the findings of "Prime Time Investigates". In the Galway city area we had 1,586 new referrals in 2007, but the waiting time for a child protection assessment is at least five to six weeks, unless it is a section 12 issue. A section 12 issue is an issue involving a case where a parent is being sent to prison. In that case the Garda contact social workers to take the children into care, which is done on that day. Unless a case is that serious, it is not dealt with on the day. The Minister of State stated in his speech that where there is a serious and immediate risk, there is an immediate response, but that is not true.

Two weeks ago, 50 case files in the Galway city area could not be opened because the social workers were not available to examine them. How, therefore, can one tell whether there is an immediate or serious risk? I have heard from a reliable source that some of those 50 cases are quite serious ones, but I cannot name my source because of the current culture within the HSE. I do not wish to start a witch hunt within the HSE, which happened previously when I received reliable information. Some 15 of the 50 cases mentioned had no prior assessment, making it incredibly difficult to assess their gravity.

I have learned that Galway city is understaffed by five social workers to meet the need that exists. I urge the Minister of State to address that need. Furthermore, two social workers who have gone on maternity leave since Christmas have not been replaced. Another social worker is on half-time, but no social worker has been employed to fill her half-time leave. This was not the case in the past, but as a result of cuts by the HSE and the embargo on recruitment things are getting worse. The job of child protection has become more difficult.

I have heard it said that children are suffering because of the lack of resources and of that there is no doubt. The Minister of State is new in the job and is full of hope and interest. Let him try and do something. I urge him to examine the situation in Galway city. A reliable source has confirmed to me that female social workers on maternity leave are not being replaced during their leave of absence. This was not always the case. If that situation continues under the existing work pressures, it is likely to lead to discrimination against young female social workers at interview and male social workers will appear more attractive. Human resource decisions are, therefore, becoming discriminatory as a result of cutbacks. This may not be intentional, but that is the outcome.

The situation with regard to social workers in the west is already uneven, with Sligo-Leitrim having six and a half staff per 10,000 population and Galway, with the worst ratio nationally, of two and a half social workers per 10,000 population. Child protection services are under serious strain and the children of Galway are suffering as a result. The social workers cannot cope with the caseload. Waiting times are five to six weeks. It is estimated that an additional five social workers are required to address the need.

I urge the Minister of State to identify the gaps in the service. Today, Senator Frances Fitzgerald asked him to identify the problems in the system. I have pointed out one of them. I urge the Minister of State to put the resources where the gaps are so that we get the best outcomes. He should not waste the money nor throw it willy nilly at the services. It must be put where the gaps are so that our children are protected.

I urge the Minister of State to address the issues of the missing children, particularly as related to non-nationals, and the lack of adequate social workers in Galway city. I presume I can give them the Minister's word that he will come back to them in Galway on that.

I will respond in due course.

I thank the Minister.

I compliment the Minister and his young wife, Sinéad, and wish them the best of luck. They are a wonderful couple with complementary skills. I wish them happiness and that they will have many achievements to their names at the end of the day. I am sympathetic to and have empathy with what Senator Healy Eames said. As I was out of the country last week I did not see the "Prime Time Investigates" report but I have in my hand a document published a month ago. We did not have to wait for "Prime Time Investigates" to hear what goes on, but like so many issues in Ireland we have report after report and very little is done. It is interesting that it has to be on television to catch the imagination of the politicians and the public.

Ireland has been seriously criticised by Europe's top human rights watchdog for failing to adequately protect children under State care. The first comprehensive report on Ireland's human rights record carried out by the Council of Europe warns that many foreign children are in danger of being trafficked for exploitation because they get insufficient care at State-provided accommodation. It expresses deep concern on the large numbers of children who have already gone missing from centres that house mainly asylum seekers. I recommend the Minister of State get a copy of this 58-page report by Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner for Human Rights on the Council of Europe. There is a large section in it, section 3.3, on children and not just on the missing children. I do not want to go into detail on it but it is exactly what I heard was on "Prime Time Investigates". This Council of Europe report has identified that we do not adequately look after children who are put into care, nor do we have the same proportion of social workers for them as we do for children in normal settings.

I am the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on children in the Seanad and we should very shortly call for a full debate on children generally. I am writing a report on suicide and its prevention in Ireland and will have it available within three weeks. I have been studying the issue since last September. We have serious inadequacies in the health service as it deals with children. Unlike other consultants attached to hospitals, a consultant child psychiatrist attached to Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin has no dedicated beds in the hospital for children with psychiatric problems. My research has indicated that there are children who are threatening suicide and are not able to get help. When they attend a psychiatrist in the community service, the psychiatrist has no bed to put them in. The consultant psychiatrist has no dedicated beds in the children's hospital; what a crime.

I visited Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin for the first time a month ago. Fortunately I had no reason to go there for my own child. It should have been pulled down 30 years ago. I was shocked by the physical structure of the building. Will the new children's hospital be in the middle of the city? It is not the right place to put it. Is it carved in stone that it will be there? Where is the fresh air in the city for the children? It is a small site. Why is it in the middle of the city?

I had no chance to read the Minister of State's speech but Senator Corrigan mentioned he said the HSE was examining the provision of social services after 5 p.m. and at weekends. I am sick of listening to that. I do not blame the HSE but the Department of Health and Children. The HSE has asked the Department of Health and Children to make social workers available after 5 p.m. every day and at weekends. In the two cases of filial suicide in the south east no social services were available out of hours. That is a crime. I do not want to hear that the HSE has put a proposal to the Department. Will the Department get its act together? Will IMPACT get its act together too? It is as bad. There are 11 dedicated positions for suicide prevention officers and three positions have not been filled.

I had a meeting with Dr. Patrick Doorley, the director of public health and planning with the HSE and I asked him why we have to wait because there is an embargo on filling positions. What about somebody among the 130,000 people who work in the HSE being willing to take up those positions? It is a matter of urgency that the out-of-hours social services be implemented immediately. It has been proven in other countries that where out-of-hours or emergency social workers and psychiatrists are available, suicide levels decrease. The lack of out-of-hours services comes through in the report on children in care and in Mr. Hammarberg's report. We need a full debate on the Minister of State's entire portfolio.

The Minister of State may have examined the OECD report on the public service and the hoped-for future efficiency of the public sector. It is a serious issue. Having been a public servant for two terms and a business person for 16 years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there must be some common sense that unions in the public sector cannot resist deployment of people where there is a crisis or staff are not available. It is not good enough.

There is a tremendous challenge in front of the Minister of State, but it is also a personal opportunity. We have a crisis in psychiatric services for children in Ireland. My study shows that in the ages zero to 14 there is no suicide, although from my expert advice I believe there are children with serious mental problems, but from the age of 14 to 19 the suicide rate increases drastically. We must get the child psychiatric services sorted to address the crisis in suicide numbers in Ireland. We have a suicide epidemic in the country. To prove my point that out-of-hours service is so important, most suicides and self harm episodes take place on Sundays and follow into Monday and one of the reasons is that there are no social services or psychiatrists on duty to help people in trouble.

I wish to share my time with Senator Pearse Doherty.

Is that agreed? Agreed.

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, the very best in his new appointment. He is a person of considerable ability and he will do well.

I agree with Senator Mary White on how media-driven all our comments seem to be at present, both at Government and politician level. It is not bad when the media is to be commended on bringing issues of public concern to all our notice, but at the same time one wonders whether we live an age of spin and whether we should be spotting these matters in advance before the media must bring them to our attention.

I also welcome Senator Mary White's references to the Council of Europe. At the outset, it is important that we start from the right philosophical and values base whenever we speak about child welfare and child protection services and the priority we give children in our society. The Council of Europe, for example, among other matters, spoke of the way we incarcerate young offenders with older offenders, effectively putting them into a school for crime in many cases simply because our knee-jerk response in criminal justice terms almost overcomes the more important issues of child welfare and how we rehabilitate young offenders so that they become more solid citizens.

I could speak about the issue I raised this morning when I drew the attention of the House to a family who have been told by the HSE that the type of speech therapy facility their child with Down's syndrome needs is just not available and they must go into the private sector to find it at a cost of approximately €5,000. That raises questions about how we regard the most vulnerable members of society.

I commend the Minister of State on a comprehensive speech — which I both listened to and read — which sets out clearly the strategy and structures. I have spoken about the values that must underline this debate which, above all, must be ones of respect for human dignity. I note Senator Norris was at pains to tell us the family does not always work best. Equally, we can acknowledge that the family generally works best. We should always start from the presumption that the family is the best place to secure a child's welfare. Sadly, it is a rebuttable presumption in many cases and that is where the State needs to step in.

The best way for the State to protect children is by supporting and working in partnership with families and through early intervention and prevention. There are generally high levels of support and professional commitment among public health nurses and social workers in providing for the needs of children and young people at risk, but there are a number of issues which need to be addressed.

There are ever-increasing demands on child protection and welfare services. There are long waiting lists for children at risk to be assigned a professional social worker, yet I am informed there is no central collation of these waiting lists for social assessment for a child deemed to be at risk or suspected of having been abused. There is an understandable fear that child protection services have become increasingly occupied with crisis intervention rather than operating the necessary comprehensive preventative and early intervention service.

Access for young people to specific services provided by the HSE, such as YAP and Extern, is restricted as the child must first have an assigned social worker. Given the difficulties in getting children assigned to social workers in the first instance, this means there effectively can be no access in many cases. Without doubt, the current HSE recruitment embargo is accentuating problems and all of this means vulnerable families and children are under increasing pressure and strain.

The Children's Rights Alliance has recommended that a comprehensive audit be undertaken of all support services for families and children provided by both the HSE and the Department of Social and Family Affairs. We need to identify where service is being provided and where there are gaps. As I stated, there must be a central collation of waiting lists for social worker assessments and we need to promote the work carried out by various groups, which carry out innovative work in the area of family support through early intervention and whose volunteers often offer regular support, friendship and practical help to young families in their own homes, helping to prevent family crises and breakdown.

I will conclude by referring to disparaging comments made by my esteemed colleague, Senator Norris, about the debate yesterday on the subject of abortion in the British House of Commons. He was disquieted by the fact that somebody stated that among the most dangerous places to be in the world today is in the mother's womb. Whatever about the wisdom of that comment, whenever we speak about the dignity of the person and children's welfare, we must not be worried about being too politically correct. Our job is to treat all people with dignity but to look hard at having a consistent respect for human life. That will embrace unborn life but it must equally embrace the 5,000 in our society to whom the Minister of State referred who are either in residential care or who are being fostered. Those people matter. They, along with the unborn and along with other vulnerable citizens in our society, must be the last, not the first, to suffer when cutbacks are being made.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Mullen faoin a am a roinnt liom agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit.

My colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, secured a Dáil adjournment debate last week on the crisis in child protection. I want to emphasise some of the points he made during that debate, but first I wish to address the reply given to him by the Minister of State, Deputy Máire Hoctor, in the absence of the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Deputy Barry Andrews. The reply was largely repeated here today and it shows the huge gap between the claims of the Government and the reality on the ground. The Government throws out figures about money spent and numbers employed in the health services as if all was well. It is as if the "Prime Time Investigates" programme was scare-mongering and as if the social workers at the front line of the crisis are somehow misrepresenting the situation. I reject that. The Government speaker stated that there was concern that any diminution in public confidence in the child protection system could result in people being reluctant to report child protection concerns, but it is the Government and the HSE who are undermining public confidence by their under-resourcing of an already inadequate child protection system.

The "Prime Time Investigates" programme revealed the true extent of the child protection crisis. Children are being abused and neglected or left at risk of abuse and neglect even though their files are in the hands of the HSE and they are known to be in these situations. Dozens of files on children at grave risk are lying in filing cabinets with no action being taken because there are simply not enough social workers to deal with them. That is not good enough. This is the result of the HSE's cap on recruitment for which the Government, not the HSE or the Department, is ultimately responsible.

Social workers and others working with children and for children's rights have repeatedly warned that the under-resourcing of child protection services, social work, community care, family support and psychological and therapeutic services is having terrible consequences. The current regime of cuts being imposed by the HSE is making things even worse. It is scandalous that we have waiting lists of more than a year for access to child mental health services and family support services.

The Irish Association of Social Workers has stated its members are concerned, angered and frustrated that the right of children to effective protection and community care is being infringed. It has repeatedly warned that children are at significant risk because of HSE failures. The association stated the programme drew attention to the realities faced by social workers and by families attempting to access social work services. I support the association's call on the Government and on the HSE to lift the current employment controls on social work posts, and to fully resource community care social work teams throughout the country. Mr. Declan Coogan of the Irish Association of Social Workers,stated:

Children at risk of abuse and neglect are among the most vulnerable group in our society yet, judging by the lack of provision of funding for community care social work services, little consideration is given to their welfare. We demand that the HSE fully resource community care social work child protection and welfare teams and fully resource community mental health services. No child should have to wait for essential social work and therapy services because someone somewhere has said there is no money. It seems that the protection of children is at the bottom of the list of priorities of those who make decisions about funding but are remote from the consequences of these decisions.

In December last the Taoiseach, then Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, attended the launch of Barnardos 2006 review. That review stated that 91% of the children who came to Barnardos had family and relationship needs, ranging from family discord to domestic violence. We need immediate action by the Minister for Health and Children to address the crisis by appointing the additional social workers and other community care and health professionals. This is required without delay to fulfil the State's responsibility to children known by the HSE to be at serious risk of abuse or neglect, or who are being abused and neglected, but currently receiving no assistance. It is time to act for the most vulnerable children in our society.

I commend Senator White on speaking the truth and castigating her own Government. That is where the buck stops. We need to take our head out of the sand and stop throwing up figures and assuming all is rosy in the garden. There is a problem and the most vulnerable in society are suffering because of it. I ask for honesty about the immediate needs that were exposed by the "Prime Time Investigates" programme.

Have the leaders got a brief question?

The Minister of State has been asked many questions during this debate. I am sure he agrees with me that it has been a disturbing debate, with widespread evidence of a crisis in the child protection services. What sort of emergency response is planned by the Minister of State? Was he convinced by the HSE's reassurances to him that it responds immediately in all cases where there is a serious and immediate risk to the health and welfare of a child? Can he go back and get more information from the people who briefed him with that statement? Senator Healy Eames pointed out that the situation in Galway showed it is clear that a social work team can respond only when a section 12 action is being taken.

The Minister of State has been bombarded with all these questions. It can sometimes appear that everything is his fault and that nothing will improve, no matter how much money is invested. I am concerned that social workers were not willing to speak out publicly about their concerns. There should be a system in place in order that they would not feel obliged to speak behind screens. I accept a child might be identified if the social worker is known and we must not identify people unnecessarily, but I worry about concealing identities for retrospective deliberations on services such as that which existed in Wexford.

Is there cross-departmental co-operation in the search for those missing children? This issue needs serious consideration. I thank the Minister of State for his attention over the past couple of hours.

I appreciate that the Minister of State is new to the office, and I wish him well. My party will be fully supportive of any initiatives brought forward to deal with this issue, which I believe is in crisis. If we are to deal with this effectively, we need to recognise that there is a problem. The "Prime Time Investigates" programme was one of the most difficult I have had to watch. I found it very disturbing to listen to the accounts of the social workers. From viewing the programme, does the Minister of State accept that in one region social workers were not assigned to work with more than 70 children who had suffered abuse? Is that an accurate assessment of what was going on, or did the programme and the social worker interviewed misrepresent the truth?

I have a brief period to respond to a great number of issues, and I will try to tackle them as quickly as I can. People have been asking about waiting lists and the numbers at risk. This is partly a legacy issue that goes back to the existence of the health boards. Health boards defined assessed risk in different ways. We have instructed the HSE to develop a common language throughout the different local health offices in order that what represents risk in the north east is the same risk in the south west. We will then have an opportunity to deliver a strategic overarching plan that will tackle the same issues. Through that, we will also be able to find out where the deficits exist.

Senator Healy Eames referred to deficits in Galway. If deficits exist in Galway, there may well be surpluses in other parts of the country and we can look at the question of redeployment. This will also feed into the national child care implementation programme, which is also under the management of the HSE and which is trying to set up a proper IT system in the area. It will allow us to develop policy properly on the basis of facts.

The answer to Senator Doherty's question on the accuracy of the programme's assessment is that I do not know. This information was given anonymously and we cannot check it, other than through this particular method. The programme makers have got until the end of June to get back to me with these figures, something which they promised they will do. There are 8,972 child abuse reports to social work departments. After initial assessment, there are 3,567 child protection concerns. The number of confirmed abuse cases was 1,492, while confirmed non-abuse cases or unfounded cases came to 351. There are 958 cases with conclusive outcomes, while assessment is ongoing for 766 cases.

Senator Bacik referred to the 90% of children in State care who have a social worker and asked what is wrong with the other 10%. The reality is that people in State care can be in residential care or foster care. At the very high end of foster care, there is no social worker for people who have little or no need for social services or State intervention or supervision. However, such people have access to social services, which explains the figure. I can see why it caused people some concern.

The problem of waiting lists was an issue of concern for almost all Members in their contributions. The HSE service plan for 2008 commits the HSE to develop a mechanism for collecting information on the following for each administrative area from 1 July: the number of notifications made of child abuse or neglect; the number of assessments conducted following notifications; the number of children on waiting lists for assessments following notification of child abuse or neglect; and the average time spent on a waiting list for assessment following notification of child abuse and neglect. However, we must first make sure that everybody is counting things the same way in order that the figures are coherent and allow us to formulate policy accordingly.

Another issue raised by Members was the question of trafficking and unaccompanied minors that are going missing from the system. The figures on people going missing while under the care of the health authorities are the same in Ireland as in Europe. At the peak of this problem in 2001, a total of 81 children went missing. Last year, 32 children went missing and this year just one child has gone missing so far. Most of them are in the 16 to 17 age group. Some of them have been rescued from situations of sexual abuse or some kind of labour exploitation. There is an issue there but the majority are leaving to reunite with their families in other countries or entering labour situations. This is not acceptable. All children who come into the State must be treated equally and the HSE is developing new protocols to ensure there is equality of treatment of children in this State, whether they are non-nationals, children seeking asylum, unaccompanied minors or citizens. Three new residential centres are being developed by the HSE which will ensure a higher level of security as soon as children come into the care of the executive.

Reference was made to the "Prime Time Investigates" television programme and we can be a little but precious about whether we should pay attention to the media or be led by the media. It is a symbiotic relationship — the media, Members and members of the public are all involved in public affairs. There have been many developments prior to the "Prime Time Investigates" television programme which was the impetus for this debate. These elements are linked and give us an opportunity to ventilate these issues. I hope I have answered as many questions as possible.

What is the view of the Minister of State on social workers speaking anonymously? Can he find out what is happening?

We do not want to create the impression that there is a fear of retribution or consequences when a person makes a comment and talks about something validly. Even in a whistle-blower regime there will be an element of anonymity. It is a legitimate media tool to use anonymity to broadcast information. I do not believe guidelines are being distributed by the HSE but I will check that.

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