The Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (The Ryan Report) was published in 2009 and detailed disturbing and significant levels of historic abuse of Irish children who were placed, by the State, in residential institutions run by religious orders. The Government accepted all of the recommendations of the Ryan Report, and in response developed an Implementation Plan. The Implementation Plan set out a series of 99 actions which addressed the recommendations and it also included additional proposals considered essential to further improve services to children in care, in detention and at risk.
It was agreed that an annual report would be submitted by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to the Oireachtas providing an update on progress made on each of the 99 recommendations contained in the Implementation Plan for a period of four years. The Fourth and Final Report was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 13 March 2015.
While overall progress in relation to the actions in the Ryan Implementation Plan was good, it was noted that 5 of the 99 actions were not yet complete, namely actions 1, 65,75,76 and 96. Actions 65 (longitudinal study over ten years was to be undertaken which would follow young people who leave care, in order to map their transition into adulthood), action 75 (a professionally managed national archive was to be developed as a central repository for the records for all children in care) and action 76 (records created in non-statutory agencies should be secured in the national archive) relate to the Child and Family Agency. These actions have not been implemented to date due to resource restrictions. The DCYA are currently engaging with the Agency to explore options on how best to proceed in relation to these actions. In this regard, the Deputy will be aware that I have secured an allocation of funding of €676m in 2016 for Tusla. This is an increase of €38m over the 2015 provision and may give the Agency the opportunity to progress a number of valuable projects, including the Ryan actions. These matters will be considered in the content of the performance statement and business planning processes for 2016.
Action 69 referred to by the Deputy was noted as completed in the final Report. In this regard the Deputy will be aware that the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2015, in relation to Aftercare, is currently progressing through the Oireachtas.
Actions 1 (building a memorial in a manner that best takes account of the views of the groups representing the survivors of abuse) for which plans were rejected and action 96 (the Courts Service conduct research into other jurisdictions that have best practice in place for the management of children and family services in the Court, with a view to introducing best practice in this area to this jurisdiction) relate to the Department of Education and Skills and the Court Service respectively.
The Monitoring Group established to oversee the Implementation of the Plan included representatives from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the HSE (now the Child and Family Agency), the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Irish Youth Justice Service, the Department of Education and Skills, An Garda Síochána and the Children’s Rights Alliance and was chaired by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The group met twice a year and four Progress Reports were prepared, presented to Government and subsequently laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. The Monitoring Group has now concluded its work and been stood down.
In relation to all five outstanding recommendations I will continue to liaise with relevant Government colleagues and the Child and Family Agency as regards implementation. I have also undertaken to keep the Government informed of progress until full implementation is achieved.
