Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2015
128. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs how his Department is ensuring the implementation of adequate and up-to-date care plans for families with children who enter emergency homeless accommodation in the State. [7765/15]
View answerGiven the sizeable increase in the number of home repossessions and the spiralling costs of private rent, what engagement has the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs had with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to ensure we have an adequate response and up-to-date care plans for families with children who enter emergency accommodation because their homes have been repossessed or they can no longer afford private rent?
As the Deputy will be aware, on 4 December 2014, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government hosted a special summit on homelessness to reaffirm the Government's commitment to ending involuntary long-term homelessness, including that of families with children, by the end of 2016. A number of actions arising from the summit were formalised into an action plan to address homelessness, and substantial progress has been made in implementing that plan. Overall progress is overseen by the Cabinet committee on social policy and public service reform. The plan and progress reports are available on the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government website.
The December 2014 action plan to address homelessness includes a commitment for the Child and Family Agency and Dublin City Council to co-ordinate operations to ensure that services are fully responsive to the particular protection and welfare needs that might arise for families in emergency accommodation.
The Child and Family Agency has advised me that it has had meetings with Focus Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and Dublin City Council on vulnerable families and issues facing care leavers. The agency intends to create a multi-agency protocol to be clear about individual agency and multi-agency responsibilities with regard to homelessness, and work on this will commence shortly.
In cases in which there are welfare or protection concerns about children in families presenting as homeless, the reporting of such concerns to the Child and Family Agency is governed by the Children First guidelines.
In addition, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government recently issued a ministerial direction to the four Dublin local authorities and certain other housing authorities prioritising homeless households and other vulnerable groups, including young people leaving State care, for housing in their respective areas for a six-month period. This measure should reduce the number of homeless persons, including families, in emergency accommodation.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House.
Policy responsibility for homelessness, in so far as it extends to my Department, relates to children under 18 and any child welfare and protection concerns that may arise in the context of the Child Care Act 1991. A child can only be received into the care of the Child and Family Agency where there are welfare or protection concerns and, as part of this process, care plans are devised to address the identified needs of the child. These care plans may, in certain instances, refer to additional supports required by the child’s family.
Homelessness as part of a family group is not of itself a basis for seeking to receive a child into care. Furthermore, there is no statutory basis for the preparation of care plans for families with children entering emergency accommodation.
While we do not have definite figures, the Peter McVerry Trust claims that in the past two years the number of homeless families has increased from 50 to 400. Given the lack of Government action to address spiralling private rental costs and repossessions of family homes, it is predicted that 1,000 more families may face eviction and homelessness in the year ahead.
Yesterday the Children's Rights Alliance published its annual report.
In the area of child welfare, which includes child homelessness, the Government received an "F" grade. Fergus Finlay, who is not unknown in Government circles, said that the grade was being allocated based on the Government's utter failure in respect of child poverty.
Does the Deputy have a question?
Is the Minister satisfied that he has a comprehensive strategy in place to deal with what will undoubtedly be a huge increase in the number of families facing homelessness this year?
The Deputy points out one issue in the report. I am very concerned about the issue of child poverty. I note that the overall report gave the Government a "C" in respect of issues to do with child care and children. However, child poverty is a matter of serious concern, which the Government will tackle through various interactions between different Departments. Clearly, we are concerned that children are in poverty and that this remains a persistent problem. The best way to lift children out of poverty is to help their parents rise out of poverty. That is why jobs are so important. This Government has created 80,000 new jobs, with 40,000 new jobs planned for this year alone. That is the best way to give people financial independence. The party of Deputy Troy and his colleague behind him was in Government for quite some time and did very little to address this matter through jobs. We believe in helping people become independent, not dependent on the State.
The Minister is right. Jobs are the best way to lift children out of poverty. This is why it is unbelievable that in four years, the Government has failed to tackle one of the biggest barriers to getting people back into the workforce, particularly people on the lowest incomes - namely, the cost of child care. The Government is failing in that regard. It is the private sector that has created jobs, not this Government. It is good that the Minister does acknowledge that the Government received an "F" grade in respect of child poverty, because the Government's decisions have resulted in a doubling of the number of children living in consistent poverty since 2009 and a 2% increase in 2014, a year of economic growth. The Minister should take his head out of the clouds. While there is some economic recovery out there, there are tens of thousands of families in poverty traps. Does the Minister not read the daily newspapers? Only before Christmas, we heard about a homeless family who had to go to Dublin Airport to ensure their children were kept warm. Does the Minister think this is right in a modern democracy? Does he think it is right that, as a society, we stand over a situation in which children must go out to the airport to keep warm? What are the Minister's plans to ensure that children in these vulnerable situations are supported?
I have made it clear that jobs are very important, but there are a number of programmes supporting families in the area of child care, such as the child care employment and training support scheme, the community employment child care schemes and after-school programmes. These programmes will help parents to get back to work and break the cycle of poverty. Equally, it is very clear that we need to have more high-quality child care and education in the preschool years to give children better outcomes. We have had a long discussion about this today and on numerous other occasions, and everybody on all sides of the House agrees that investment in the early years yields the best outcome for children and the best return for the State.
