2026-01-29

Deputy O'Gorman has 20 minutes.

I will not be taking the full allocation for our group.

No problem.

I welcome this legislation and acknowledge the hard work of officials in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. I know the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Foley, will recognise that work as well. Work on this Bill has been ongoing for some time. I was involved in some of the drafting work relating to the Bill when I was in the Department. I hope that it transits quickly through these Houses. We have to consistently ask ourselves if our child protection laws and practices are effective. We must acknowledge that real progress has been made in this State on child protection since the referendum in 2012 and with the creation of the Department and of Tusla. Nevertheless, we are painfully aware that there are children who have been profoundly failed by those around them with a duty of care, including the State and its agencies. This Bill will strengthen the child protection architecture and increase both responsiveness and accountability where necessary. In terms of the Bill, a crucial element, and one I inserted, is section 10, which establishes the childcare implementation and inter-agency committee. This will put on a statutory basis, with very clear responsibilities, the committee I brought together on an administrative basis during my term as Minister. The committee involves Tusla, An Garda Síochána, the HSE, the Department of justice and others. Enhancing and strengthening inter-agency co-operation is probably the most crucial and the most consequential move we can make, especially as it had been clear to me that there is potential for lapses or failures in timely communication or timely engagement, particularly where it is essential that different parts of the State that deal directly with children should be talking to one another. As regards the most persistent critiques of the child welfare system in this country, from the children's ombudsman, from the last special rapporteur on child protection, from the childcare law reporting committee, all of those focused on situations where State agencies disagreed or stuck very rigidly to their own remits and children were left exposed and fell through cracks. Absolutely, there are good examples of inter-agency co-operation already in place, but every agency will admit that it is not absolute. Making it a statutory obligation, as this Bill does, for organisations to engage frequently and to meet promptly is a very important function. This section sets out in detail the objectives and functions of this committee, who exactly will be part of it and, crucially, the means through which information will be shared and accessed in pursuit of child protection. This is a good move, but one thing that cannot be placed in legislation, I am sure the Minister of State will agree, is the need for a strong chairperson. That role will be indispensable in making this committee work. I know the weight of obligations placed on those who will be its members - the Department, the assistant Garda commissioner, senior HSE executives - will be great. I know all will be absolutely committed to the matters at hand, but that co-ordinating role of a chair will be important. As regards the childcare implementation and inter-agency committee, which, as the Minister of State knows, has been meeting on an administrative basis for almost two years at this stage, putting that on a firm statutory basis, as this legislation will do, is really important. I also acknowledge in this Bill the legal requirement for relevant bodies to co-operate. That is provided for in section 11, relating to the duty to co-operate, which mandates not only collaboration but also the sharing of hard data and information. That is another important point in ensuring that vital information about child protection issues is never held or guarded by one agency of the State on the basis of maybe some sort of quibble over the general data protection regulation, GDPR, or the like. I also welcome the inclusion of the new section on guiding principles to the 1991 Act. This is an essential piece and brings the Act into proper alignment with the modern view and the foundational basis of our entire suite of child protection legislation. By rights, this probably should have been done after the 2012 referendum. It has taken us too long to get to this point, but it is important that these guiding principles now form part of the law. These are the fundamental principles that give effect to the duty to respect the rights of children and their best interests and to have the views and preferences of children known, understood and given consideration and due weight. I also acknowledge the important improvement in section 6 where it comes to the operation of voluntary care, where the Bill seeks to give Tusla the ability to address more effectively short-term care needs of children requiring care. Voluntary care is an important part of our child welfare mechanism. It ensures that parents can, in agreement with Tusla, allow their child to go into care for a certain period. However, because it is done by agreement, there was maybe some lack of formality over elements of the voluntary care system. Even though it is voluntary, that formality needs to be in place because anytime a child leaves the care of their parents and goes into the care of the State, that is a significant moment. I welcome the measures addressed towards foster carers. A safe and nurturing foster home is always a better option for a child than being in a residential placement, particularly at a time of such enormous demand for Tusla's services. Efforts have been made to make fostering more sustainable and to recognise the hugely important work foster carers do, but more is needed, so I am happy to see this measure adopted in the Bill. It is not in the Bill yet, but the Minister referred to placing the national review panel on a statutory footing. Again, that is an important step that is needed. The national review panel plays an incredibly important role. It investigates those situations where a child has died or been involved in a serious incident while known to the State or in the care of the State. The learning from the work of the national review panel is incredibly important in making improvements to our child welfare architecture across the State and ensuring that similar situations do not occur again. Placing it on a statutory footing, I think, will further strengthen the key role that organisation plays. The final point I will make is that I was always conscious of the criticisms about Tusla that we often hear in this House. Where there is an organisation looking after the most vulnerable of children, it is essential that it is open to criticism and open to the need to improve at all times the services it provides to children. It is also important to recognise the context in which Tusla operates. Between 2020 and 2024, there was a 39% increase in referrals to the Child and Family Agency. That is a dramatic increase in the scale of provision that it had to engage with. As well as the scale, there is also the complexity of the cases, including children who were facing very different needs as a result of Covid, children who were neurodivergent and children whose first language was not English. The scale of change that Tusla had to address in that period was huge. As much as there are incidences where there is very legitimate criticism of the Child and Family Agency, I had the privilege to see the huge work that the agency itself and many of the organisations funded by it undertook and undertakes in communities all over the country. When we ask why it is so hard for the Child and Family Agency to recruit young social workers into those key front-line posts in Tusla, we have a responsibility in this Chamber as to how we speak about it and its agencies' work, always looking for improvement and highlighting where errors or mistakes have been made but also recognising its crucial job. There is no more difficult job than that of a social worker who has to go into a family situation where a judgment has been made that children need to be removed. It happens only in the most crucial and the most difficult situations. It is important as well as looking to improve Tusla and its operations at all times. We have obligations in terms of supporting its work as well.

This Bill amends the Child Care Act 1991, which is wide-ranging legislation that seeks to promote the welfare of children who may not receive adequate care and protection. Over the years the Act supported the establishment of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, and an amendment to Article 42A of the Constitution to recognise the rights of the child. As per the programme for Government, the Act is being updated based on a review identifying what is working well to address gaps and operational improvements. It is absolutely necessary that we modernise this Act, and there has been consultation on this over several years. It should better protect children from harm and improve stability for them by allowing for the updating of care orders and care arrangements and supporting the establishment of an inter-agency committee for better co-operation. It will introduce guiding principles for Tusla to follow in the performance of its duties, including that the best interests of the child are of paramount consideration, ultimately, to ensure children's rights guide decision-making and for a better alignment with the UNCRC. I welcome the rights-based progress and more joined-up thinking. I also welcome putting the national review panel on a statutory footing. It has been raised already but I ask that the Minister engage directly with the guardians ad litem, GALs, particularly in relation to their concerns around independence. They are a very important stakeholder. From engagement with Tusla, it is clear the pressure it is under is immense. Since it was established in 2014, child protection and welfare referrals have more than doubled. For the first 11 months of 2025, the agency received 98,000 referrals, an increase of more than 10% over the previous year. Such is the importance of these services, any gaps must be addressed strategically and proactively. Its presence on the ground in communities has never been more important. While I see areas like ours grow, and it is great we are seeing new communities, I want to see the Tusla network grow in those areas as well. They need to be connected into early intervention. We need the targeted and the specialist services and supports across the State. Tusla advised the committee last week that it had moved from 17 areas to 13 networks, which it says means it has smaller geographical areas. Within each of those areas, it has local integrated teams. These are integrated front-door teams, where it has family support teams and child welfare and protection services integrated under one roof, so when requests come into the service, they can screen them and react quickly. I wonder whether that is enough, and if it is doing enough work to reach into communities. Through the likes of the local community safety partnerships, there should be the opportunity to strengthen the Tusla presence, working closely with youth workers, social workers, the JLOs and local communities. This Bill is the second half of amendments to the Child Care Act 1991. The first half passed in 2024 and was focused on early years services, including the removal of the exemption of regulations on self-employed childminders who work in childminders’ homes. The Minister then followed that up with specific regulations. I take the opportunity to briefly focus on childminding services. There has been very low registration during the three-year transition period to September 2027. Families using childminders are not necessarily able to avail of the national childcare scheme subsidies. Lots of parents out there are worried their childminders are not going to sign up to Tusla. The supply is not there to choose one that is. It is great to see so much focus on childminding in phase 1 of the early years action plan. I think we all agree the regulation of childminding services is critical to the safeguarding of children. Childminders are anxious about how inspections will be carried out on their homes, so I am asking the Minister of State to update us on when the review of the registration process will take place because time really is of the essence. We want to ensure we are not losing childminders from the sector, and we need to support our parents. That is the goal. We need to ensure we are doing both but the safeguarding of children is the most important priority of all. I will also take the opportunity to ask about the 17 crèches that did not register properly and were in danger of not being able to open earlier this month and whether the new Garda vetting process was part of what happened there.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation. I want to be very clear from the outset that this is an incredibly important and necessary Bill, and one I am proud to support. At its core, this Bill is about recognising that the world of child welfare and protection has changed significantly since the original Child Care Act was introduced in 1991. The challenges facing children and families today are different. Services are more complex and the need for agencies to work together effectively has never been greater. This legislation acknowledges that reality and it responds to it. One of the strongest aspects of this Bill is the introduction of a statutory duty for agencies to co-operate with each other when it comes to supporting children and families. That may sound like common sense, and it is, but putting it into law is hugely significant. Too often in the past, families have felt like they were being passed from one service to another, repeating their story again and again. This Bill moves us towards a model where services are expected and not just encouraged, to work together in the best interests of the child. This is exactly where the focus should always be. The strengthening of interagency structures, including the establishment of a formal implementation and interagency committee, is another very positive step. It creates a space where Departments and State agencies can co-ordinate responses, identify gaps and improve how services are delivered in practice. For families dealing with crises, delay and fragmentation can have lifelong consequences. Better co-ordination means earlier intervention, better outcomes and, ultimately, safer childhoods. I also strongly welcome the provisions that support stability for children in care, particularly the changes allowing foster carers to apply for enhanced parental rights after three years instead of five years. Anyone who has spent time speaking to foster carers knows the level of commitment and care they provide. Where there is a stable, loving, long-term placement, we should be supporting that stability and not putting unnecessary administrative barriers in the way of it. The Bill also strengthens review processes around care arrangements and improves oversight mechanisms, including strengthening the framework around serious incident and child death reviews. These are sensitive and difficult areas but they are absolutely essential if we are serious about learning from past failures and continuously improving our system. I also acknowledge the work being done by the Department and the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, in progressing this legislation and committing to further strengthening measures, particularly around the national review panel. We also cannot discuss child protection legislation without recognising the front-line role played every day by Tusla staff, foster carers, social workers and support workers across the country. These are people doing difficult work in emotionally demanding situations and legislation like this gives them stronger tools and clearer structures to do that work effectively. What I also like about this Bill is that it reflects a modern understanding of children’s rights. It places guiding principles into legislation that align with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensures decision-making across the system is grounded in the best interests of the child. That is exactly where our system needs to be. We must also, however, be honest. Legislation alone is not enough. Implementation matters. Resourcing matters. Workforce capacity matters. We must ensure that as we strengthen the legal framework, we continue to invest in the people and services that make it real on the ground because, ultimately, child protection is not just a responsibility of one agency or Department but a whole-of-State responsibility, a community responsibility and a societal responsibility. This Bill is not about headlines. It is about building stronger systems quietly and steadily, systems that protect vulnerable children, support families and give professionals the tools they need to intervene early and effectively. For those reasons, I believe this Bill is very positive, necessary and a proper step forward and I am very happy to support it.

At the outset, I would like to say I worked for the northern area health board, the HSE and Tusla. I worked in the same place but obviously changed over into different organisations over those 20 years when the responsibilities changed. I worked as a family support worker and later as a child and family support network co-ordinator. I commend so many people. I know it is really difficult work. I commend the social workers, the family support workers and the care workers. The social care workers in Tusla do an absolutely phenomenal job and those in the organisations that are around it and are supported by it. I want to talk specifically about guardians ad litem, GALs. I have only a limited amount of time, so I am going to try to get through this as quickly as I can. Just to read from their comments, the most concerning issues that arise from the response being provided is the ongoing insistence that the guardians independence will not be affected, alongside the sentence referring to ensuring legal representation for guardians ad litem where necessary. The decision as to whether it is necessary for a child to have legal representation through the GAL rests with the State. The State has so often had to make apologies to children for not hearing their voices. It was also stated this will be a massive step backwards. Here is an example. To take a hypothetical situation, Tusla and the parents will automatically have access to all the reports about the child’s legal representation, attend all court dates, challenge evidence, procure reports and assessments, bring contacts or applications to seek directions under the Child Care Act and to appeal any decision of the court that is of concern to them. In the current independent system, guardians ad litem can do all of these things on behalf of the child and are fully legally represented in court. There is currently no waiting list for guardians ad litem and legal services are immediately engaged without any delay. In stark contrast, from the commencement of the new guardian ad litem service, guardians will only be able to ask the national service, which will come under the remit of the Minister, Deputy Foley, for permission to do any of these things. There will be a process, which has yet to be confirmed, that guardians will have to go through to get legal representation. Guardians ad litem are concerned about this logic. The State now sees them as only necessary in circumstances where the parents and Tusla are not engaged. The role of guardians ad litem is not to prop up the case for the State or the parents, but to be an independent representative voice in the best interests of the child. It is their opinion that their right to representation should never depend on the level of engagement of parents or their consent and that it should be possible to realise this right for all children. Some 92 guardians ad litem, highly skilled and experienced professionals who have serious concerns about the proposed new guardian ad litem service for children in Ireland, are reluctant to enter this new service. These concerns have repeatedly been raised directly with the new service but there has been a lack of meaningful engagement. That lack of engagement with guardians ad litem is really concerning. Over the last couple of days, we have heard repeatedly that the Minister has refused, or has not been able, to meet these guardians.

A meeting is being arranged.

It is really important that we sit down with the people who are directly involved and engaged in providing those supports. As I have said, I have met many guardians ad litem over the 20 years I worked with them. They are incredible people who work really hard.

Since 2019, almost 1,000 early years childcare services have closed their doors. The Minister has said that 579 new services have opened but she failed to say that most of these only cater for school-age children. There are currently 40,000 children on waiting lists for childcare across the country. The services that have closed could potentially have provided for 30,000 of those children. Childcare facilities are closing because of ever-rising costs and a lack of funding from Government. Many more small early childhood care and education, ECCE, services are going to close because the Department of children is making no funding available to cover these costs. New rates bills are now being foisted upon them. Although these small service providers have been rates-exempt since 2010, over the last six months, they have been receiving these rates bills, which they cannot afford to pay. It is the death knell for many of these providers. The ECCE programme is a free two-year programme for children aged from two years and eight months to five years old. It runs five days a week and provides three hours a day of free pre-school. Service providers say that Government funding of between €69 and €82 per child per week is not enough to sustain these services. Costs have increased but Government funding has not. Their contracts do not allow them to charge parents. These increasing costs on crèches are not sustainable. According to Elaine Dunne, chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, if Government funding is not increased, more closures will follow. As a starting point in resolving this urgent issue, the Government must increase the current rate per child per hour from €4.60 to the sponsorship rate of €5.30. The Department of children must take responsibility for the payment of the rates bills or, alternatively, rates must be abolished entirely. I will address some issues that parents are having. One issue affecting families in Skibbereen and across the wider west Cork area is the serious lack of childcare facilities, which puts pressure on parents who are simply trying to balance work and family life. I recently heard from the parent of a 12-month-old girl who had been searching for childcare for most of the year. This parent applied to crèches not only in Skibbereen but also in Ballydehob and even as far away as Clonakilty. Despite placing their daughter on multiple waiting lists, they were eventually told there was simply no space for her anywhere. After months of uncertainty, they finally found childcare but only by piecing together two separate childminders, one covering Monday through Thursday and another who would take their daughter on Fridays. They consider themselves lucky because many parents in their community are still struggling and often relying heavily on family support, which not everyone has. Even for those who do find childcare, the financial burden can be overwhelming. This family is paying nearly €1,300 every month for two childminders with no Government subsidy, no scheme and no relief available to them. They are not alone. Many parents in west Cork and all over Ireland are in similar situations, working full-time and doing everything right and yet finding themselves financially stretched because essential childcare infrastructure simply does not exist. This is more than an inconvenience. It is a failure of basic social infrastructure. Childcare is not a luxury. It is a necessity for working families and an essential pillar of a functioning equitable society. When families cannot access childcare, their economic security is threatened, their ability to work is compromised and the well-being of their children is affected. It is deeply concerning that such a vital service is missing from a town as large and vibrant as Skibbereen. We cannot expect families to thrive when they are forced into last-minute arrangements, long commutes or unaffordable private options. I call for the urgent prioritisation of new crèches, expanded childcare supports and meaningful investment in early years services in areas like Skibbereen. Families deserve stability, affordability and access to the childcare services that every community should have as a basic right. I will also raise an issue that many parents in my constituency have contacted me about, that is, the decision to end the ECCE split-place exemptions from the beginning of the 2026 programme year. Only last week, the Government announced a major investment in early years education, claiming that it would improve access and make childcare more affordable. However, almost straight away, families were being told that split-place exemptions will be removed. For many parents, this feels like giving with one hand and taking with the other. There are families who simply do not have the option to keep their child in one service for five days a week. Their local services are full. There are not enough places. To make childcare work and to stay in employment, they have no choice but to use two different services. This is not a lifestyle choice. It is the only arrangement that allows them to manage work and care availability. Removing these exemptions punishes families who are already dealing with a shortage of childcare places, especially in rural areas.

The Government has created the perfect storm. Ireland has applied itself to making sure there are more jobs. That is a great thing. We should always encourage equality and ensure that people, whether men or women, can get jobs. A lot of people in Ireland are now working and that is a great thing. When my kids were growing up, they were able to go over the road to a local person who we would call the childminder. This person might have reared seven or eight children of their own. These people treated our children as if they were their mothers and their husbands would treat them as if they were their fathers. The kids could be dropped off in the morning and picked up in the evening. They were fed, kept and safe. Of course, that was banned under new regulations brought in under the then Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, a few years ago and most of them have left the market. That is a fact. The statistics will tell you that they are not coming back. That is one part of it. The second part is the incredible work done by crèches around the country. There is a big problem with babies. A certain ratio is required. That might be needed. I do not know. A lot of crèches do not want to take the really young babies. This ratio and the money you get out of taking in the really young babies are problems. If we do not address these problems, they will get worse and worse. We must also ensure that the workers in crèches get a proper wage. We have a community crèche in Glinsk called Caisleán Óir. The Minister of State might search it on Google some time. We are abroad in the middle of the countryside. We have a pub, a shop, a church and a community centre and we built a crèche years ago. There were 48 kids in the local school. Because of the foresight of people in the service, there are now something like 85 or 90 children in the crèche. Enrolment in the school has gone up to 88 or 90. People are coming from the whole area. Does the Minister of State know what our biggest problem is now? Ironically enough, you can be a victim of your own success. With the planning that went into the crèche, the great staff, the management and the community behind it, we decided to provide after-school care. We got a minibus to pick up the kids. They get a lunch and they do their homework, and they are nearly ready to go to bed when they go home or to look at television. More and more people have come from different areas to use this service. It is out in the middle of the countryside. What has happened now is that we have a community centre and, because we have to make sure that we facilitate children, one third of this community centre is used to sort out the after-school service because more and more kids are using it. It is a great story to read and look at. Now, the service has to expand more. We are out in the sticks but people are coming from a huge area because parents vote with their feet. They look to where there is a service. This service caters for babies right up to children going to school. People come from a radius of five to ten miles around. It is a massive service. It is a community crèche and it is not for profit. We need to make sure we make these services affordable. It was not in the time of the Minister of State, but I begged the former Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, with regard to the great people out there who mind a couple of kids in their house and who have to go through such a rigmarole. I feel sorry about this. It is like anything; it is like being in business. Do not ever worry about the person in business beside you because we need everyone to be doing a bit to cater for everything that is going on. I will not do all of the work in the world and nor will someone else. When the Ceann Comhairle was working at the lorries she did not do everything. There is always enough for everyone. I ask that child care be made as affordable as possible. With regard to the grants, I know there is pressure in cities and large towns. I understand that but look up the story of Caisleán Óir in Glinsk. Think of this small crèche in a rural area where people would say nothing is going on. Look at the number of children attending, how it is booked out miles ahead and how there is a wait for places. It wants to get bigger. When funding comes it should also cater for the likes of these services in the countryside.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. Vulnerable children have been treated terribly by the State and it is a dark mark against the Government and the previous Government. There are many good things in the Bill. There are bad things there also and I want to go into detail on them. When it comes to child protection and child welfare, there is no doubt we have to get better in terms of inter-agency communication and co-operation. There also needs to be transparency around data. We in Aontú have raised this issue in the Chamber over and over again. We have raised the individual reports produced by the national review panel on the deaths of children in State care. Some of the observations of the national review panel and Dr. Helen Buckley are harrowing. There are serious gaps in the level of inter-agency communication and internally between different geographical Tusla units. Certain areas are not communicating with each other at all. These gaps are resulting in the deaths of children. I am thinking of instances where CAMHS has refused to accept children who are referred to it by Tusla simply because CAMHS does not have a policy on accepting children who use drugs or alcohol. Hugh was 16 when he died from a drug overdose after CAMHS told Tusla it would not take him. Niamh was another child under Tusla's care. She died at the age of 15 by suicide. She too was deemed ineligible by CAMHS. Another report about a girl called Ava under Tusla's care showed how she disclosed sexual abuse but nobody from Tusla spoke to her because in the Tusla area she was in, they assumed a social worker in the area where the alleged abuser lived was speaking to her. She was discharged from CAMHS after a mere two appointments and her body was found a few days later. She was 14 years old. It is welcome that an inter-agency committee is to be set up under the legislation but it has an enormous amount to do. There is little joined-up work happening between various agencies and officials are passing children from Billy to Jack. These children are falling through the cracks and they are being left with no supports, abandoned to the point where I am reading the details of the findings of the inquests of their deaths. This has been the result of Government action. I have huge issues with the Bill and how it deals with separated children, migrant children, young people in aftercare and care leavers. The former Ombudsman for Children, Dr. Niall Muldoon, asked that specific provision be made in the legislation for unaccompanied children. Children who are placed into voluntary care require parental consent for this to happen. Provision must be made for those children who are orphans or who are in this country alone without their parents to ensure their rights are protected in the care system. We cannot continue to accommodate these children under section 5 of the Child Care Act. It is outdated and effectively creates a two-tier system for children's rights. When unaccompanied children do not get allocated a social worker and they do not get allocated a care plan, it is a major difficulty. We also need to do better in legislation for birth mothers in this country. A number of women, and it is primarily women, ring my office to air grievances they have with Tusla. Birth mothers whose children have been taken into care feel aggrieved by the process. There does not seem to be a proper structure of support systems for such mothers. There is no fair means through which they can air their grievances. There are no psychological supports. There is an in camera rule that leaves them terrified to speak about their experiences. In some cases, they are afraid they are breaking the law just by talking to me or to the Garda. They are afraid Tusla will come after the remaining children if they criticise it. The free legal aid system is not fit for purpose in how it treats birth mothers. Many of them have long and complex stories to tell. When one of these mothers rings my office I know it will take hours to go through all of the issues she has to discuss. The free legal aid provided is five minutes with a barrister before a court case. We also need to have a strengthening of parental rights, procedural fairness and independent oversight. This is what birth mothers are looking for. I want to talk about the recent report of the Child Law Project. The details of the project are shocking. It is very alarming and very sad. We know we have a crisis in Tusla in terms of child protection. We have seen multiple cases in recent times where children have gone missing from care, where Tusla did not know where they are, where children were killed while under the care of Tusla, and where a child was raped under the care of Tusla. There are horrendous details in the report. One case involved a mother who was sold to a man who sexually abused her. She was found with her baby on the side of the road by a passer-by who called the Garda. We in Aontú have consistently raised these issues, particularly about the number of children not assigned a social worker. We have also been very outspoken on the scandal of human trafficking in this country. For a long time, I have been the only voice in the Dáil raising these issues. This has to change. We need a full debate about the crisis in Tusla.

In fairness, the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2025 is a substantial piece of work. It needs to be because it is the first real reform of our child protection laws in more than 30 years. It comes after a very long and well-documented history of systemic failures, inconsistent practice and persistent gaps in co-ordination between the agencies, especially within Tusla's work. For example, we have had situations where children have been known to multiple agencies but the information was not shared. There have been cases of severe neglect where schools repeatedly raised concerns but there was no co-ordinated response. We have also had cases involving children with complex needs, disability, mental health issues and addiction issues in the family where there was a failure by agencies because no one took the lead. These types of issues have been highlighted repeatedly by HIQA, the Ombudsman for Children, the Children's Rights Alliance and numerous case reviews. In that context, the Bill's modernisation of the Child Care Act 1991 is welcome and necessary. The Bill will introduce clear statutory principles to place the child's best interests at the centre, affirming the right to be heard and requiring proportionate rights-based interventions at all times. It has been broadly welcomed many of the various oversight bodies and practitioners who have long argued that the absence of these principles in legislation and the lack of a statutory basis for them has contributed to inconsistencies around the country, depending on the area people are in. The Bill's emphasis on this inter-agency co-operation is definitely a step forward. I have raised issues already regarding people falling between the cracks in the fragmented service. The creation of an coiste forfheidhmithe agus idirghníomhaireachta um chúram leanaí responds directly to these failures by establishing this formal structure. Vetting provisions will be further strengthened to give full effect to Directive 2011/93/EU. This is also important because we have had delays in vetting foster carers or volunteers, regular poor communication with the National Vetting Bureau, and cases where relevant information about the adults in a child's life was not shared or was not shared in a prompt manner. Other Deputies referred to child sexual exploitation as one situation where people have been allowed to fall through the cracks. The delays in vetting foster carers and inconsistent information sharing have caused major problems. In principle, embedding the stronger safeguards in law is a meaningful improvement. However, the Bill does have some notable gaps which the Ombudsman for Children has raised, for example, in terms of voluntary care. For years children have remained in voluntary care arrangements without adequate oversight, clear timelines or consistent review processes. While the Bill does improve that framework, it does not have the robust statutory protections that many advocates like the ombudsman believe are essential to prevent drift and may mean things will just go and that because we have this legislation, things are fine. We need to ensure accountability. There are also unresolved issues in terms of children presenting as homeless. We have had documented cases where children were told to return to unsafe homes or where the responsibility for their welfare was disputed between housing authorities and Tusla. The Bill does strengthen the general duties of care and co-operation but it does not actually give any clear statutory responsibility for homeless children. Oversight bodies have documented delays also in assigning social workers, inconsistent guardianship arrangements, and the use of unsuitable accommodation. There is a lot in the Bill but it does not tackle chronic resource pressures that tie in with all the systemic failures we have seen, such as the high caseloads, the staff turnover and, as I mentioned, the disparities in services around the country. The legislation on paper creates higher standards but I want to emphasise that without the tools to increase the capacity and to ensure staff are kept and more staff are retained, these standards risk remaining aspirational.

In broad strokes, I welcome this Bill and the debate in the Chamber on it, be it on childcare places or the Bill itself. Today I want to focus on two points, namely, the duty to co-operate and the establishment of the committee. For the past couple of months, I have had my eyes opened in Drogheda. I normally visit schools on a weekly basis. Most recently, before Christmas, I visited three schools where it was highlighted to me that children of seven years of age were coming in high on drugs - not high on life; high on drugs. Principals pointed out to me the immense pressure they are under trying to keep the children safe and away from their peers - teenagers who are grooming them and turning them into drug mules. Schools are supposed to be areas of safety, which protect the children, lift them up and give them the start of a good life. They should not be facing these pressures. In a lot of cases these children are coming from homes where there is addiction, where the mother or the grandmother or the absent father is not there to facilitate and help them, to protect them and to give them the guidance and care that they need. We need to step in where this is failing. In Drogheda we have The Red Door Project, which is an excellent service. It helps people with addictions yet it has not got the funding for outreach programmes. We have the wonderful Connect Family Resource Centre in Drogheda and the Redeemer Family Resource Centre in Dundalk, both of which go out into the communities. The communities themselves offer great assistance to many families but they cannot do it alone. I have always said that it needs to go from top to bottom and bottom to top. It has to be a unified approach. We talk about Tusla and An Garda Síochána. I have to say the gardaí in County Louth have been exceptional. They have had to face criminal organisations over the past number of years, and they have been excellent at bringing these people to justice and achieving convictions. However, we always know that when we lob off the head of a snake another head grows in its place. The pressure is continuous. The pressure on resources is continuous. The gardaí are there to bring these people to justice but they cannot be there 24 hours a day. When I am out and about at events, the gardaí are always there, they are always helping, and they are always listening. However, the biggest complaint I hear is that one hand does not speak to the other hand. That is why in this Bill I am really heartened to see there is going to be a duty to co-operate. I regret that has to be put on a statutory footing and that all of these bodies need to be pressurised and legally put on a statutory footing in order to talk to each other because common sense would say that to combat a problem everybody should be brought to the table. We had that in Drogheda. We had the Drogheda implementation board from 2021 until December 2024 where we saw that first hand. We should see it as a test model for other places. I am a big fan of the Greentown Project in Limerick. It is not about one Department. It is not about one body. It is about bringing all the Departments and bodies together, including the communities, and getting to the heart of these communities to show these young children who are being used as drug mules or drug dealers. I said it this morning, I said it yesterday and I said it to the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, before Christmas that I was at a conference in Drogheda at which I told the average age of a drug mule is now between seven and ten years of age. The average age of a child to be used as a drug dealer is between ten and 12 years of age. I found that absolutely horrific. I was aware that teenagers were being groomed and used but the very idea that these teenagers are now so au fait with the procedures and processes of these criminal activities that they are in a position to get their claws into young children as young as seven years of age is absolutely unacceptable for a society. Like a lot of people, I did not expect to hear that information when I went into those schools. I believe a lot of people would find that difficult to accept, never mind digest, this sort of information. The duty to co-operate will be fundamental to ensure we can make some effective progress in protecting our children. It is absolutely essential. I really welcome the establishment of a committee. However, a committee is only as good as the people on it and the resources and powers given to it. This committee is very welcome but it cannot be a talking shop. It cannot be a committee that meets a couple of times a year, which goes out and visits a few communities, comes back, puts a report together and puts it on a shelf. This cannot be a data collecting activity which gathers dust. It has to be effective. When we have put agencies like Cúan in place, we have seen how effective they can be and how they reach out to the different organisations. Indeed, Women's Aid Dundalk recently received €6.5 million for new beds. That is hugely welcome. It shows that when there is a committee or an agency with proper oversight, proper powers and proper funding, we can achieve something. In the times we are living in, we are facing so many threats left, right and centre. Today it is AI, tomorrow it is Grok and who know what it will be next week. We genuinely do not know but we have to prepare, and we have to be there for our children right from the beginning. As I said before, we cannot let these people get their claws into our children.

Any legislation that provides greater supports for children who need them is to be welcomed. However, we also have to make sure that children have, for example, appropriate school settings. There is a report out this week that shows a decrease in the number of young children attending school. If they are not attending school, they come to the attention of Tusla. This week I visited a school in the Minister of State's and my constituency, namely, St. Kevin's Community College on the Fonthill Road. It is my former school. I walked around the school with the principal and there were 32 leaks in the school builsing. It has an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, class that is not fit for purpose. It is meant to moving towards 1,000 pupils but there are no plans for that. As far as I know, the school is not in the summer work programme either, so it will not get any supports during the summer. Schools like St. Kevin's in a disadvantaged areas need to have the appropriate settings to encourage children to go to school, so they do not come to the attention of Tusla. In my previous profession, I supported people suffering with addiction issues. One of the most challenging issues I had was when, within the space of two weeks, three young women presented to our service. All three were products of the care system, all three had addiction issues and all three had a child while in the care of the State. All three had their children taken off them and put into the care of the State while they themselves were in the care of the State. That shows me all that is wrong with Tusla. It is a symptom of a broken care system. These are not isolated incidents. I could bring up more recent incidents in our constituency but I will not because I know there are investigations ongoing. These incidents are not few or far between and they need to be addressed. I hope this Bill goes some way to addressing the problems we are experiencing with Tusla.

I welcome the chance to speak on this Bill. I want to acknowledge the hard work social workers, link workers and family support workers, etc., do but the reality is the public has lost confidence in Tusla over the years. We need to see steps to rebuild trust. I want to highlight concerns over the future independence of the guardians ad litem, GALs. Their job is to be the voice of the child in court proceedings. It is as simple as that. In some cases, GALs can be critical of the social work Department. They need to be independent and not be concerned about any repercussions from doing their job. There are cases where children in care see their social worker change regularly due to staff turnover but the GAL has been appointed to the child and knows the child inside-out. I know that from my experience as a foster parent. They know the children's concerns and asks. I have concerns about GALs and Tusla being under the same Department and Minister. I echo the calls from other speakers that the Minister meet with the association of GALs to discuss these matters. In terms of foster parents, I welcome that the timeframe for the application for enhanced rights has decreased from five years to three. Children placed in care have formed very strong relationships and bonds with their foster parents so allowing a foster parent to make a day-to-day decision on a child makes sense. However, let us be clear: we need to do a lot more work to support foster carers. I look forward to the Bill going through the House. My party will be very constructive and will work with Government Members to ensure its passage.

I thank social workers and all the people working in the industry. The amendments to the Bill build on calls from Members of this House over several years. I welcome the work put into it. Also on a positive note, the changes to improve Tusla and childcare across the system are welcome. Foster parents who take children into their home have to be commended. To show someone love and give someone support is very honourable. The parts of the Bill strengthening regulation and oversight are admirable as well. There have been calls for a very long time about the Government arrangement with Tusla. We see from recent incidents that there need to be improved enforcement powers. The tightening of quality and safety standards are welcome. I do not see how anyone would not support that. It is good to see we are continuing towards treating early years education as part of our social infrastructure. It is not just a private service; it should be available to everyone in the State. I welcome that. I thank the Minister of State for the time she gave to the Clontarf Bulls and the other teams and for speaking to the parents afterwards. For any parent of a child with additional needs going through the education system, it was great to see the engagement and I thank the Minister of State for her work on that. The parents we had in for the meeting were speaking of going through childcare, school and university, especially the CRC. Giving children with additional needs supports after they leave is important. The Clontarf Bulls reiterated that. I thank other Members of the House, as well, for their welcoming into it. Childcare is not a luxury. I know everyone in this House heard that on the doors in the last election. It is very difficult at the moment. I heard Members talking about parents nearly finding it more affordable for one of them to give up work. That is something we definitely should not be encouraging, especially after fighting so hard for a society that accepts that both parents work. We cannot be going backwards in that sense. I acknowledge the progress and expansion of the national childcare scheme and the increased staff allocations and professional standards. It is brilliant to see that. Those are the positive notes. Now I have to go to some amendments I would like to see. The extra public funding is real and I give credit where it is due. On the ground, however, many childcare providers are not talking about reform or progress. Having spoken and reached out to many of them before speaking today, they are talking about survival. Some are talking about closure, especially in Dublin Bay North. Many of these people are dedicated and have been in the industry for 25 or 30 years. They are struggling at the moment with the energy crisis and other difficulties, especially because they love it so much. When you are working in that industry with children, you have to love it and show your love. I spoke to childcare providers, parents and staff across Dublin Bay North and further afield. I had people reaching out to me from across Ireland on this important topic. I would love to read out some of what they are saying because this debate should not be abstract. I spoke to Elaine Dunne, who has done fantastic work. I have her permission to read out this email: l am writing to you on behalf of [I will not say the name] to express our deep concern about the increasingly unsustainable position that well-established childcare providers now find themselves in under the current Core Funding model. [They are proudly serving] the... community for many years, consistently providing high-quality childcare and maintaining the highest standards of care, safety, and professionalism. However, despite our long-standing commitment and proven track record [in our community], we are now facing extreme difficulties in keeping our doors open. Childcare fees have been frozen since 2018, while Core Funding has increased by only five cents per child. This minimal increase falls far short of covering the rising costs of inflation, utilities, food, insurance, staffing, and compliance. As a direct result, we have been forced to make drastic and heartbreaking cuts, including the closure of our kitchen [and other services] - something that directly impacts children and families. I will not name the provider but can pass the details over to the Minister of State's office. "What is particularly disheartening [for them is they] appear to be penalised under the current system". I know changes are coming and it has been spoken about in this House. We need to speed those up. While we struggle to survive under fee freezes and insufficient funding, a new childcare service... directly across the road from us is free to charge fees of up to €300 per week, along with a non-refundable €800 deposit. This creates a deeply unfair and unbalanced playing field [for this long-established provider in the community]. Core Funding was presented as a promise of sustainability and fairness for all childcare providers. In reality, it has failed to deliver on that promise. I know there is no silver bullet for the majority of issues we face in this Dáil but this should be examined again because: If this continues, many respected and well-run services... will be forced to close, to the detriment of children, parents, staff, and the wider community [they have served for so long]. That is not ideological. That is not political point-scoring. Those are their words. This service has done everything asked of it and is now being squeezed out by a funding model that does not reflect reality. Reaching out to another long-established childcare provider, I received this from Donnycarney in my constituency. The following is the text I received this morning: I don't know what I'm going to do and everything is up in the air. The government think it's going to be a straightforward takeover and it’s not. If they go down this route it is going to cost them a lot more investment than they currently pay out. I removed some of the other text because I could not read it in this Chamber. It goes on to say: This government, even with their investment over the past few years, still has ... the lowest GDP investments into the sector in Europe. We are being trampled into the ground and it feels like nobody is listening. I see the Minister of State taking notes. I know she is listening. I am optimistic that she will take this on board and bring it to the Department. Further on, the person who contacted me says that the fear, uncertainty and sense of being ignored is really affecting her business, her staff and her own mental health. The parents who go to her business are saying the same. One parent wrote to me, saying: We pay €866 a month for the baby and ... [€200] for after school. The broken promise of the €250 cap and the deafening silence on the matter. It was to be actioned within [the first] 150 days ... . Now it’s said it will happen in the lifetime of government . They stated that they think this needs to be changed and asked me to help. Another parent raised another incident, and states that the school has no school hall. This is to do with after-school care. I know it is not directly related to the Bill. Continuing, he says: The children play outside in the rain ... Working parents [already] pay huge amounts in tax and contribute to society. My son is 8 now and I fear he'Il be doing his Junior Cert before this is addressed. It is not unreasonable for parents to be asking that. I have seen some mentions of it in recent announcements in the sense that if you have children in school, there are some schools that provide the service. However, I would love to see it nationwide. Other countries do it, as do some places in Ireland. If parents are dropping their children off to school and the children are already in the school, it would be great to have more established and funded models. I know there is some mention of it in that. After-schools could be facilitated easier, particularly for staff in the schools who would like the extra few bob in their pocket. Another parent stated, "Core funding doesn’t exist in practice." This is another childcare provider from north Dublin. "You won’t find a creche with it fully covering costs." The parent states that the only subsidy that really works is the €2.40 an hour under the national child care scheme and the Government should increase those payments across the board. I welcome the Minister's engagement with my office on this. We had been inundating the previous Minister with parliamentary questions. I have a few of them here. I will not read them out; I will publish them later. In regard to staffing requirements and insurance costs, the SMEs are really struggling, especially the long-established ones that I mentioned earlier. The Bill, especially when it talks about quality, should examine this. It needs to exist with viable services, using the existing ones that are already in place in communities. Without fair funding, the regulation simply drives out good providers. As I mentioned, people are being cut out. Parents do not magically get cheaper childcare. The programme for Government states that this will be examined over the lifetime of the Government. I am aware things take longer. This should be prioritised as there are people who are being forced out of work. We know the current model needs to be changed and the long-established community providers cannot be frozen out or locked out. The fact that the Bill rewards new builds and punishes experience is not fair. There are four things I will request. This is from consulting with the providers. These include reflecting the real costs in the core funding and the hourly subsidy under the national childcare scheme, as suggested to me. In only parts of the system, providers consistently say this works. We must deliver on the €250 cap and I am cautiously optimistic that the Minister of State will do this. It is very important that when a promise is made to the electorate, it is delivered on. If we do not do that, they are broken promises. We are nothing without our word. Supporting after-school must be treated as infrastructure. We should all work from across this House. An rud is fearr liom sa Teach seo ná nuair atá gach duine ag obair le chéile ar na fadhbanna seo. Ceapaim gur cuma leis na daoine taobh amuigh den Teach seo cé atá ag déanamh na rudaí. Tá siad ag iarraidh go bhfuil an obair déanta. Táim tar éis é sin a rá le cúpla fadhb a tháinig chun cinn sa Teach seo. Is bubble é an Teach seo. Nuair atá tú amuigh i do Dháilcheantar féin - tá a fhios ag an Aire Stáit faoi seo - tá daoine ag streachailt sa phobal faoi láthair. Tá praghas gach rud ag dul suas. We should work with a sense that if there is a suggestion that comes in, we should all accept things that need to be done for the betterment of Ireland, accept them quickly and put aside political differences. I really would welcome that.