Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Vol. 969 No. 4

Topical Issue Debate

Family Resource Centres

Deputy Robert Troy

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for selecting this important topical issue. It is an issue I have tried to raise on a number of occasions and one I raised by way of a parliamentary question to the Minister and in correspondence with her Department on a number of occasions. I was somewhat disappointed to realise that a deputation on this issue was met last week and Deputies who are helping to keep the Minister in her position were not informed about it or invited.

Recently, the Minister's Department was allocated additional resources for new family resource centres across Ireland. I understand 11 centres were selected nationally. It is unfortunate that a multi-agency application submitted by Attic Youth Cafe, Longford Community Resources Limited, LCRL, Longford County Council, Longford County Childcare, Barnardos and Longford Women's Link was refused. I understand they put forward a comprehensive application to the Minister's Department. I believe it scored very well and passed all the procedures and process within Tusla. I am told that the only reason it was refused is because there were not enough additional resources to meet their application. That is somewhat surprising given that this application serves an area of high deprivation. The only marginally worse part of the country is part of Donegal and Limerick city. I believe this particular area would benefit greatly from a family resource centre. How were the 11 chosen ahead of this application chosen? The Minister might update me on that. I would appreciate it also if the Minister could give an undertaking that this application would be considered favourably in the next round of funding.

When the Minister met the delegation from Longford last week they highlighted, in the absence of a family resource centre being made available for the urban town of Longford, that at a very minimum what needs to be addressed is the chronic need for a childcare facility for an area servicing MacEoin Park. MacEoin Park is a very disadvantaged area. The income threshold of the 130 houses is approximately €28,000 annually. The lone parent ratio is 59.3%, 51.8% have only a primary education and 78.2% are living in local accommodation. Until 2016, there was a childcare facility servicing this area but that is no longer the case.

It must be acknowledged that Longford County Council has done extraordinary work supported by funding from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in the past two years. It has entered into a regeneration project in this area. I believe it has brought approximately 18 houses back into play and it has given the general area a face lift. However, now that we have more people living in the area we need the services in that area to support the people living in it. What is more important than a service for early childhood education? We know the early stage is critical from an intervention point of view. They are the most formative years in a child's life.

I understand the Minister gave a commitment last week to review this issue. I welcome that and fully support it. As previous commitments have been given regarding MacEoin Park I ask her to be honest with this application, give it due consideration and, hopefully, she will be in a position to make the necessary funding available without any further delay.

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (Deputy Katherine Zappone)

I welcome the opportunity to respond to the issue raised by Deputy Troy here in the Chamber. As he is aware, the family resource centre programme was established in 1998. It was overseen by the former Family Support Agency up to the transfer of responsibility to Tusla and its establishment in 2014.

Above all, I want to clarify that the decision regarding the inclusion of an organisation in the family resource centre programme is a matter for Tusla as the body with responsibility for the administration of the programme. Up until this year, there were 109 family resource centres in the programme. Two centres are operational in County Longford and they are located, as the Deputy knows, in Granard and Ballymahon.

Family resource centres are independent voluntary organisations that deliver universal services to families in local communities, based on a life-cycle approach. The centres seek to combat disadvantage and to provide supports for the improvement of family life. It is a programme that also emphasises the involvement of communities in tackling the problems they face, working inclusively with service users and creating successful partnerships between voluntary and statutory agencies at a community level.

In the budget of 2018, I secured an additional €3 million for Tusla to support the family resource centre programme. It provided funding to be used to support existing centres and to expand the programme to include 11 new centres.

Following a public application process in March of this year, Tusla announced the 11 centres which are being included in the programme. It advised me that the quality of applications received was of a very high standard.

The criteria considered in assessing the applications included the size and make up of the geographical area, the social and economic conditions of the area and the overall breakdown of the population that would avail of the centre. The criteria also considered the structure of the organisation applying to the programme, the objectives and targets of the organisation, the organisation's current relationships with other stakeholders and the inclusion of research, evidence of community projects and local needs assessments with the application.

Tusla received a high number of applications for inclusion in the programme. One of these was from a group of organisations in Longford town. Tusla was faced with a difficult decision-making process in selecting 11 new centres for inclusion in the programme having regard to the selection criteria which I described. I understand that many stakeholders were consulted by Tusla as part of this process, including regional Tusla staff and local children and young people's service committees, CYPSCs. I am sure the Deputy will be interested to know that Tusla has commissioned an analysis of child and family services in the midlands counties of Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly. This analysis is currently underway. This work will seek to identify and map the current service provision for children and young people in these four counties by location and by level of need. This analysis will also utilise existing data from the Central Statistics Office and other research in providing a map of the population of young people in the midlands. The final report will identify services available to those young people and is expected to highlight any current issues within those services. Tusla and Longford Westmeath CYPSC will review the findings and take them into account as we move forward.

Tusla is acutely aware of the level of need in certain areas of the country and is actively working to improve outcomes for children and young people. Through its commissioning approach, Tusla plans to deliver, and is already delivering, services in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner in the context of the family resource centre programme but I can assure the Deputy that I will continue to support the work of family resource centres.

Deputy Robert Troy

I welcome the feedback the Minister has given me relating to family resource centres but I did spend two minutes specifically raising an issue concerning the deputation last week. I would appreciate if in her reply, the Minister could update me about her thoughts on that. She mentioned the criteria used in the assessment of applications such as the size and make up of the geographical area. Longford is a very big provincial town so one would imagine it scored well there. Another criterion includes the social and economic conditions of the area. As I said previously, according to the Pobal deprivation index, despite all the stringent improvements that have been made in County Longford over the past number of years, there are still areas that are identified as disadvantaged with only Donegal and Limerick city performing marginally worse so, again, one would imagine that Longford would score quite well. Another criterion about which the Minister spoke is the organisation's current relationships with other stakeholders. As I said, it was a comprehensive submission. There were multiple stakeholders including the council, Longford Community Resources Limited, Longford Women's Link, Barnardos and the Attic Youth Café. A whole spectrum of people in County Longford were being served so I am at a loss to understand why it was not in the original 11. We will go through this further. I might come back by way of further parliamentary questions.

Could the Minister relay to me on the floor of the Dáil her commitment to review in a very positive manner the application to provide child care services for MacEoin Park because the State has already invested heavily in the regeneration of MacEoin Park? It is an area that badly and urgently needs it because there is no further capacity in the early years setting across all of County Longford and this area is being deprived. By depriving this area, we are not giving the children of this area the adequate start in life they deserve. Whether or not someone gets a good start in life should not be based on their geographical area and I know the Minister accepts that. I would welcome it if the Minister gave positive support on the floor of the House that this will be reviewed urgently and positively and that the people of Longford can look forward to a facility there in the not too distant future.

Deputy Katherine Zappone

I am very happy to answer those supplementary questions. The first question involves the application from the various groups for another family resource centre. As the Deputy notes, there is an impressive list of people who came together to make that application. I am familiar with all of those organisations and can imagine, although I would not have seen it, that they put in a very good and strong application. I mentioned two things in my response. The first is that I do not make the decisions. Tusla makes the decisions with regard to the criteria I have outlined. The second thing is that I am very much of the view that the family resource centres are a really fine way of moving our supports and services for children to people throughout the country and where people, particularly those in different agencies, work together to provide services in a holistic way. They are working really well. In the last budget, I looked for a way to support the development and the numbers of those family resource centres as well offering some initial supports to the ones that already exist. Although not exclusive, it is really a very strong model for the future way in which we deliver children and family services throughout the country. What I am happy to say, which I said to the organisations I met, is that I will be looking for additional investment for family resource centres in terms of my negotiations for 2019 but that is something about which I cannot comment further.

I am aware that the child care service in MacEoin Park has closed down. I am also aware that my Department is making strenuous efforts to re-establish the service working with the Longford County Childcare Committee as well as other people, including the local authority. In addition to what the Department is already doing, I have committed to having a meeting with Tusla to take a look at Tusla's understanding of some of the issues along with Longford County Childcare Committee and my officials as the next step to see if we can get moving on this in terms of responding and re-establishing the service as a next step.

Mental Health Services Provision

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to take this issue. It concerns the conditions in the department of psychiatry in St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny, which serves both Carlow and Kilkenny. It now serves patients from Tipperary since the closure of St. Michael's Unit in Clonmel yet there has been no expansion in that service even though there has been a big increase in the number of patients with which it deals. The conditions were highlighted on a number of occasions by staff. Examples were patients sleeping on makeshift mattresses on the floor and people putting two or three chairs together to provide beds for patients. It has led to significant issues for staff morale. One would question what sort of service is provided or what conditions the patients are in. A makeshift bed on the floor does not really say very much for the service. I imagine the view is probably to get people in and get them out as fast as one can because they are so overstretched.

One of the most significant issues is that we have been looking for a meeting between Members of the Oireachtas from Carlow and Kilkenny and the HSE management responsible for the department of psychiatry at the hospital since 14 February. I requested a meeting but I imagine all Members of the Oireachtas in the constituency have an interest in it. The head of the hospital group for the south east came back to say that this was not her area. There was no further information. It was just a case of her not being accountable for this. We went through the Oireachtas HSE representatives line but heard nothing back. We did so again on 15 February and 29 March and on 10 May we finally tracked down somebody who is supposed to be head of the mental health services for the CHO 5 region into which Carlow and Kilkenny fall but there was still nothing.

I am not one bit surprised about the HSE because it seems to be accountable to nobody; it does whatever it likes. As we have seen recently with the cervical smear test scandal, women are not at the top of its priority list.

I would like the Minister of State to convene a meeting of the management there. I have no faith in them given that they do not have the manners to come back to an elected representative in the area to say "I'm not the person you should be contacting, but this is the person" or "I'll get somebody to contact you with the information." It sums up the HSE and how it acts about everything. I do not have any confidence in it being able to facilitate a meeting or give us any concrete answers. I ask the Minister of State to organise a meeting for the Oireachtas Members in the constituency so that we can find out what the issues are and what we can do to try to address them. I know there is never an overnight solution to these things. At the very least we should be able to sit down with the management there and find out what the issues are.

Many staff are coming to me and other elected representatives informing us how it is nearly impossible for them to deal with these kinds of working conditions. They have obviously trained to try to help and support people at a very difficult time in their lives. They feel that their hands are tied in many cases and it is very frustrating. I would like to see if we can do something positive about this. We can certainly not get any further until somebody is willing to sit down and talk to us about it.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Jim Daly)

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The provision of appropriate and safe facilities for patients within the mental health service is a priority for me and for the Government. To ensure that services are provided in a safe environment the Mental Health Act 2001 provides the Mental Health Commission with the power to inspect, regulate and enforce standards in all approved centres. Approved centres are hospitals or other inpatient facilities for the care and treatment of people experiencing a mental illness or mental disorder and which are registered with the Mental Health Commission. Such inspections are carried out annually and a report is produced following each visit.

The HSE works closely with the Mental Health Commission and welcomes its inspection reports. The priority for the HSE is patient care and support for service users, as well as to ensure adequate accommodation and staffing in this respect. The commission’s reports help to identify those areas where improvement is required. The HSE also plays a key role in ensuring that any identified issues are remedied.

From 19 to 22 September 2017, the Mental Health Commission visited the department of psychiatry acute mental health facility in St. Luke’s General Hospital, Kilkenny. The 44-bed department of psychiatry serves the Carlow, Kilkenny and south Tipperary catchment area. The department has 45 whole-time equivalent nursing posts in place in addition to other medical, specialist and support staff to serve the needs of all those who require treatment and support.

During its inspection, the Mental Health Commission identified a number of issues relating to staffing requirements, screening, storage of medicines and a number of other areas. To address these issues, the commission has developed a corrective and preventative action plan. This plan outlines the steps to be taken to ensure full compliance. As noted in the inspection report, many of the actions detailed in the plan have subsequently been completed, are ongoing or are in the process of being addressed to the commission’s satisfaction. The HSE has provided funding to south-east community healthcare services to complete a number of environmental works at St. Luke’s.

Actions being taken by St. Luke’s include: provision of additional staff training and review of policy to ensure compliance with their review requirements; risk assessment forms are now being updated and reviewed in line with the approved centre’s risk management policy; and awareness of policies and procedures relating to searches will continue to form part of staff induction process and at staff meetings.

The Mental Health Commission will follow up on this report with a further inspection to ensure that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure that St. Luke’s is fully compliant with mental health legislation.

The Mental Health Commission fulfils a very important role in ensuring our mental health services are of a high standard. Inspection reports, such as this, help to ensure that any deficiencies in the provision of mental health services are identified and addressed.

The Deputy has requested a meeting with HSE management. Of course, she, as a public representative and the other Oireachtas Members in the constituency are entitled to seek and be granted such a meeting. As I do not know the other side of the story, I will not comment on the floor of the Dáil. However, if the Deputy sends me the details of the request, I will ensure she gets her right as a public representative along with the other Oireachtas Members in the constituency to engage with HSE management. Communication is a vital part of the mental health service, as it is with any other service. It is very important that communication is two way.

Kilkenny has a very strong record in the area of service user involvement. It is one of the areas that is working hardest in service user engagement and hearing the voice of the service user. I am very pleased with a number of initiatives in Kilkenny and it is one of the stronger areas in that respect. The voice of the public representative must also be heard. I do not want to go any further because I do not know the other side of the specific issue the Deputy raised. If she sends me details separately, I will liaise with her and her Oireachtas colleagues in the area to ensure she gets full access to management and gets her queries answered.

Deputy Kathleen Funchion

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I will send him the details. The first thing is that there is no response. I can send him copies of the emails and letters we have sent, but unfortunately there is very little of the other side of the story, with the exception of one or two people saying it does not fall into their area.

Unfortunately that is a common theme in the HSE. It is a difficulty patients face all the time. We are supposed to have an Oireachtas line that does not even work on which people cannot even come back to us. There is no point in having these systems in place if they do not work. There is a wider lesson to be learnt for the HSE. It has complete lack of accountability and feels it can brush everything under the carpet and eventually people will stop requesting meetings. However, for me in this case that will never happen. Even if it takes six or seven months to have a meeting, we will persevere with it until we get it.

The idea is to be constructive to see what we can all do as a group to try to progress these issues and relay to the HSE management the experiences of the staff and patients. We often come across stories that they will not hear first-hand. Communication is helpful. It is extremely frustrating to deal with an organisation that feels it is okay to ignore; it should not be okay for anyone to do that, particularly when people rely on us and feel we might be able to get some answers or at least organise a meeting or get a little bit more progress on the issue.

I will send the Minister of State the information and I would appreciate if he could organise a meeting for those of us in the constituency.

Deputy Jim Daly

I will progress the matter if the Deputy sends me the detail of the issue. The public representative has a key role to play in the delivery of mental health services. As a Minister of State, I very much value the opinion, contribution, input and engagement of my Oireachtas colleagues who represent all the stakeholders in the delivery of mental health care.

By and large there are not many adversarial issues among Oireachtas Members in the mental health area. There is co-operation, goodwill and uniformity for the most part. Most people want to be constructive and that goes across all parties and none. As long as I am a Minister of State I will ensure the Oireachtas Member plays the key role he or she rightly should in the delivery of mental health services.

Post Office Network

Deputy Michael Harty

I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for choosing this Topical Issue today. I thank the Minister for coming in to respond.

We have had many discussions about the sustainability of the post office network over the past two years. It boils down to expanding the services the network can deliver. It effectively depends on the Government devolving more Government services to post offices and developing new services that are meaningful to the public and which people will find helpful when accessed through the post office network.

The post office network is a real national asset which the Government should support. Once a post office is lost to a community it will never be regained. The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to protecting the post office network. Even though it commits to supporting social welfare contracts, which are delivered via the post office network, the value of these contracts has fallen from €60 million to €51 million. If this trend continues, it will undermine the viability of many post offices.

Supporting the post office network will encourage people to avail of direct payments through their post office.

What is happening is that, on the one hand, the Government is encouraging people to have their payments and services supplied online and, on the other, it is proposing to support the post office network. As a result, one branch of Government is opposing the other and the network is being undermined as a result.

In its programme, the Government committed to a model of community banking. This has been discussed for the two years the Government has been in office but nothing has been brought forward in the context of delivering a community banking network. The Government also committed to identifying services that can be delivered through the network by means of a one-stop-shop model. The post office network should act as a facilitator for people who have difficulty applying for services online and it should help people ensure that they make accurate returns on their applications, which can lead to a speedier response.

In November 2016, the Rural Independent Group tabled a motion which recognised the vital role post offices play in the social and commercial fabric of communities. That motion was unanimously accepted by this House. The post office is often the last financial institution in a community and the loss of a post office will fatally damage the viability of a community as people move their business to larger centres. That motion committed the Government to look at the idea of post offices developing a community banking networks similar to the Kiwibank or Sparkassen models. These models have been very successful in their home countries, delivering meaningful services to the community, and the profits that are made by those community banks are ploughed back into communities rather than going to commercial enterprises.

The motion in question also committed the Government to protecting postmasters' income by providing extra services. The deal that has been offered to postmasters is a Hobson's choice in that they either continue on as they are - and, invariably, have their incomes reduced once they are reviewed because no additional services will be supplied by the post offices - or they have to accept an exit package that is very unattractive and that may leave some postmasters who have 30 years' service with just one year's income because the package will be taxed. The remaining option is to engage in a new contract which puts huge commitments on the postmaster but which may not be financially viable and which interferes with the post office tenure. It is very unattractive. They are being offered a Hobson's choice. I would like the Minister to respond on those issues.

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (Deputy Denis Naughten)

I thank Deputy Harty for raising this important issue. I am acutely conscious of the value that is placed by communities, both urban and rural, on services provided by the post offices. As the Deputy knows, I am committed not only to protecting the post office network but to ensuring that the services provided within the network are improved and expanded. In fact, to prove that commitment, at the end of last year the Government gave €30 million in State funding to An Post - €15 million to support the renewal of the post office network and €15 million to protect the five-day a week mail delivery service. The company is now planning to invest €50 million in growing and modernising the network in the coming years.

I accept that the company and the post office network face huge challenges. However, the fact the network is spread throughout the country, in every single parish and community, provides us with a unique opportunity. I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy that moving services online and through digital will lead to the closure of the post office network. In fact, I believe that is the key to the survival of the post office network. To take, for example, banking services, we have seen how all of the major banks move out of rural communities and force people to go online. There is now an opportunity for the post office network to provide a counter service to those people who either do not want to use the online option or are not able to use it. There is active discussion at the moment between An Post and the commercial banks in respect of providing those services in every post office. An Post intends to go further and provide a real banking choice to people throughout the country and it is currently in negotiations to provide enhanced and improved financial services within the network.

I agree with the Deputy that there is a challenge and that there has been inertia within Government in the context of moving services through the post office network. While we have to be conscious of the procurement process involved in that, there is a commitment from the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Kyne, and the Ministers for Rural and Community Development and Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputies Michael Ring and Regina Doherty. We have renewed the social welfare contract and while it has reduced, thankfully, as fewer people are relying on social welfare and the number in employment has increased, nonetheless, there is an opportunity to provide an offline avenue for people to access Government services. That is why, working with the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, with an allocation of €80,000, we now have a digital assist pilot scheme in ten post offices throughout the country, whereby we can provide Government online services through an offline platform with the local post office. As I said, ten post offices have initially been selected by the IPU at the following locations: Austin Friar Street, Mullingar, County Westmeath; Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon; Bandon, County Cork; Buncrana, County Donegal; Claremorris, County Mayo; Dingle, County Kerry; Loughboy, County Kilkenny; Oranmore, County Galway; Portarlington, County Laois; and Tubercurry, County Sligo. We intend to provide an offline avenue for Government services through those ten post offices and, based on our learning from that, to expand it right across the country, bringing Government services as close as possible to a one-stop-shop mechanism.

We are also committing, through the negotiations we have had with the IPU and given the 80% endorsement by IPU members, that there will be no compulsory closures of post offices across the country. We are working with colleagues to put more Government services, including motor tax, through the post office network and to use digital platforms as a mechanism to provide many more such services locally.

Deputy Michael Harty

In County Clare, those who run 14 post offices have been offered exit packages. Rather than being offered extra services supplied through the post offices, they are being asked to leave the service when they do not want to do so. The Minister spoke about there being no compulsory closures but, effectively, what is being offered to the postmasters amounts to compulsory closure. They are being given a Hobson's choice by virtue of the fact that unacceptable financial burdens are being placed on them to sign new contracts, remain on the existing contracts with diminishing incomes or take the exit package, which is completely unacceptable to most postmasters and postmistresses who have 20, 30 or 40 years' service. Rather than devolving services to post offices, the Minister is actually showing them the door and asking them to walk through it.

The Minister has to bring this down to each individual community. He speaks in global terms but each individual post office is an essential service within the community. No matter what he says about millions being offered and investment being put in, unless they are offered additional services which are meaningful to the public, they will have to close. Post offices should not be subject to market forces. A post office is an essential part of a community and if it goes, it will never return. If they are subjected to market forces, many of these post offices will not remain in operation. They need extra services, for example, banking services and, ideally, a community banking service. Many of the postmasters who have been offered this exit package are very upset because they are being put under social pressure by their communities to remain open, even though it is not financially viable to do so, and they feel very hurt by this. The Minister needs to introduce a financially sustainable model that will allow post offices to continue. He must consult with communities, local community organisations, Leader, Irish Rural Link and the farming organisations before any post office is allowed to wither on the vine.

Deputy Denis Naughten

A clear protocol has been put in place regarding any post office that is to be considered for closure. It will be the postmaster who will initially decide whether they want to take that road. If they do want to take that road, there is a mechanism to look at alternative options, including whether there are other businesses in the community that are willing to take it on.

To give practical examples, there is one case where there are two post offices within 700 yd. of each other.

There are many examples around the country of the community bypassing its local post office and going somewhere else to avail of post office services. They are the practical examples of what is happening and Deputy Harty knows them as I do. We need to be realistic about this.

The post office is an essential part of the community and that is why I want to put more government services through it. We need to reform the existing contract which goes back to 1907. It is not fit for purpose today and no one can say that it is. We have a new contract and active negotiations across Government on putting in new services. We have active negotiations with An Post about putting new and very different banking services into post offices across the country. It will take time and it is frustrating that we have not got the full package of services in place immediately but we have to take a step-by-step approach to this. My initial priority was to keep the doors of An Post open. The company nearly closed after I took over as Minister. One of the first proposals put in front of me was to reduce the five-day week postal service which I was not prepared to tolerate. We have an agreement with postmasters and the Government for the first time has put cash into the post office network, which had not been done in the past and we intend to put real services through the post office network, which has not been done before. Previous Governments have paid lip service to the post office network. There have been significant closures but now we are putting a clear plan and future in place and a clear plan to put new services into the post office network. I am determined to ensure that happens in reality.

Children's Rights

Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy

I thank the Minister of State for Justice and Equality, Deputy Stanton, for his presence here to address the challenges experienced by some migrant children. This matter was prompted by a particular local case, of which I know the Minister of State may be aware. However, many young people living in Ireland are struggling to regularise their immigration status in a system that appears to be extraordinarily difficult to navigate and idiosyncratic. Migrant children are one of the most vulnerable groups of children in Ireland making child migration an enormous challenge for us. We must fairly address the issue in the best interests of the welfare of the child. Currently immigration law lacks consistency and clarity. Lack of data is a block to proper planning and this should be gathered and published annually. We need clear and understandable guidelines for decision-making and we need to find an easy way for people who become trapped in irregular undocumented immigration situations to regularise their situation without fear, most especially if there are children involved.

Migrant children's interaction with the immigration system is not addressed in a coherent way. Our laws lack transparency and clarity leaving children largely invisible in our immigration system. Their specific rights and needs are not given adequate consideration. International law requires that all children, including children accompanied by parents or other legal guardians, must be treated as individual rights holders, their child-specific needs considered equally and individually and that their views are appropriately heard.

I do not need to remind the Minister of State that Ireland has obligations under international human rights law, EU law and the EU Convention on Human Rights to respect children's rights. Furthermore a right to a family life is a fundamental aspect of EU law, international human rights law and Irish constitutional law. In January 2016 the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child examined Ireland's compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It recommended that Ireland adopt a legal framework to address the needs of migrant children.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland undertook to document what those needs were and how the absence of a framework for legal migration impacted on children and young people's lives and Child Migration Matters was published in December 2016. I know the Minister of State is well aware of that. This featured 32 case studies and interviews with the 150 plus professionals working with children and young people from a migrant background. It is a comprehensive snapshot of the multiple challenges facing immigrant children and young people and concerning the lack of information, guidance and clear criteria when it comes to the immigration status of these young people. The sheer volume of calls to its helpline and the cases relating to children and young people inspired the research. I know that the Immigrant Council has been calling on the Department to streamline the process for young people and for a centralised single agency with expertise to be established, which can provide clear and comprehensive guidance to young people, their families and those working with them to ensure that they know exactly what is required to regularise their status.

A person's immigration status can define and determine the life path. It is central to their access to employment, education and social services and yet there has been little policy analysis here or dissemination of information to ensure that children have a recognised, appropriate immigration status and that they can apply for naturalisation when they have fulfilled specific criteria. I am thinking of children who have come here as babies or at one or two years of age who consider themselves Irish, who have gone through our education system and are now facing deportation. It is incumbent on us to figure out some method for providing an amnesty for children and young people in that position. The Irish immigration system does not allow a child younger than 16 to hold immigration status on an individual basis. It assumes that the immigration permission of such a child be that of their parent. Therefore the immigration status of a child lacks clarity and consistency which can result in practical difficulties for children.

Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality (Deputy David Stanton)

I thank Deputy Corcoran Kennedy for raising this important matter. I am here on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, under whose remit this policy area resides. The Deputy will be aware that I cannot comment on individual cases nor on cases that are due to come before the court.

While the control of our borders and immigration are important duties of State, Ireland has always been recognised as an open and welcoming society. This duty is at all times subject to the law, including our international human rights obligations, and the supervision of the superior courts. Ireland operates a very open immigration regime with many different pathways for non-European Economic Area, EEA, nationals to enter and remain in the State lawfully. Indeed, just yesterday over 3,500 people became Irish citizens at a series of citizenship ceremonies in Killarney. At the same time, however, it is not unreasonable of the State to expect those who have been granted permission to reside here to respect the conditions attaching to that permission, including the obligation to leave the State once their permission expires.

When an asylum seeker comes to Ireland seeking international protection status, they enter a legal process. At the end of the application process, during which all aspects of the applicant's case, including full consideration of Article 8, family rights, are considered in detail, a decision is made and the applicant is either granted international protection status and permission to remain in Ireland or if they do not qualify they must leave the State. In both circumstances the applicant is given time to make appropriate arrangements. For those issued with a deportation order, the obligation is on the person to remove themselves from the State and only when they decide not to do so, is enforced removal deportation considered as a last resort. I am assured by my officials that the immigration service has always shown itself to be fully sympathetic to the plight of such persons unlawfully in the country and will balance their situation against the State's obligation to protect its borders. Importantly, in the interests of fairness, clear, transparent procedures are applied and at all times the actions of the immigration services are subject to review by the courts. A decision to make a deportation order is not taken lightly, particularly where children are involved. I am assured that the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, is fully alive to the impact of a deportation order, including in circumstances where a person or a family has been in the State for some time. The courts are also aware of this factor. Similarly, the courts take cognisance of circumstances where people are present in the State and do not comply with the conditions attached to their permission.

The question of an amnesty or general regularisation scheme along the lines suggested by the Deputy for those who are currently illegally resident in the State has been considered many times. It is considered that such an approach could have many unintended consequences including in relation to the operation of the Common Travel Area and the integrity of our immigration system. The approach taken by INIS is to look at the circumstances of each case and take account of factors such as the co-operation or otherwise of applicants with INIS and the degree to which an applicant has abided by the conditions attached to permission in the State. Where there is evidence of a desire to respect the laws of the State and abide by them, a humanitarian approach may be taken where merited on a case-by-case basis.

Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy

I hoped that consideration would be given to the proposals that a child-sensitive, human rights-compliant, transparent legal framework for immigration would be adopted where the best interests of the child is a guiding principle, that applications for visas and residents' permissions would be considered and that there would be statutory rights-based procedures for family reunification in respect of Irish nationals and non-EEA nationals, with expanded categories of migrants eligible for immediate family reunification. I am going off my Topical Issue matter but this is part of the bigger picture. Also I hoped for an independent appeals mechanism to review negative decisions in applications and for appropriate, tailored immigration permission for children who are required to register and a formal statelessness determination procedure for people who cannot establish citizenship of any nation.

The Minister will understand that there are many practical challenges that prevent people from registering so that they are undocumented. I noted the response at the end "where a humanitarian approach may be taken where merited on a case-by-case basis". That is posing a challenge where similar applications receive different responses. There is little insight into why these different responses pertain. If some of these suggestions are put in place, it would save time and resources in the administration process. If we, as a State, have invested taxpayers' money in accommodating, educating and getting people here to a stage where they consider themselves Irish citizens, then allowing them to complete that education, integrate into the labour market and become part of society is the best outcome for everybody concerned.

Deputy David Stanton

Ireland is a State that welcomes emigrants and recognises the positives of immigration. At the same time, and like all countries, Ireland must operate a transparent and fair immigration system which functions with integrity and is subject to the supervision of the courts. Children who enter the State must, of course, be treated with the greatest of care. However, that is not to say that non-EEA nationals with children who enter the State for the purposes of claiming international protection should be allowed to remain because of their children. I assure the Deputy and the House that the immigration cases of all persons seeking to remain in this State are considered on their individual merits and in accordance with all applicable domestic, EU and international law. We have an obligation to treat persons who arrive in this State with due process and in a fair and transparent manner. That is what we do. However, we also have an obligation to our citizens and those who have been granted immigration permission to be in the State to respond to those who have no legal basis to be here and have availed of all legal options open to them.

One point that I did not emphasise earlier is the European dimension to this issue. Ireland, together with the other member states of the European Union, has committed, under the European pact on immigration and asylum, agreed at the European Council in October 2008, to use only case by case regularisation rather than generalised regulation under national law for humanitarian or economic reasons. The pact commits member states to not engaging in any form of general regularisation of those illegally present in the territory of member states. That means a general amnesty cannot happen. I reiterate, therefore, that it remains Government priority not to introduce an amnesty along the lines suggested for the reasons stated. Ireland is however an open and welcoming society and a place where the law is applied fairly under the supervision of the courts. We look at these instances on a case by case individual humanitarian basis.