I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. I join colleagues in welcoming Mr. French and his family and colleagues to the Gallery. We are here to honour Valerie and her family for their enduring commitment and to honour Valerie's children. This is a very rare occasion, certainly in my short spell as a TD, to see such overwhelming support across the House for legislation. I commend the Minister and his officials on the short time it has taken from the publication of the programme for Government to bringing such detailed legislation before us today. Having been a youth worker and taught child protection to many volunteers for so many years, it is really welcome to see this type of terminology and language in legislation in Ireland today whereby the welfare of the children of this State is of paramount importance to us. We have come an awful long way and we still have a long way to go in that regard, but when we hold the welfare of children at the core of the decisions we make as legislators, we will never go too far wrong. That is why, notwithstanding I am sure the many constructive amendments that might be tabled on Committee and Report Stages, the Social Democrats are very much behind and look forward to supporting the basis of this legislation. With regard to child and youth participation, since becoming the Social Democrats' spokesperson for children and young people, I have heard from many organisations and many young people about their ability to be informed participants in legal proceedings. That is not for today but it is something we might consider in the ways in which we can ensure that young people are given the capacity to participate and to share their experiences and their feelings in a way that is safe, ethical and heard. That is certainly something we will consider. Similarly, today we have heard from the Ombudsman for Children that one in five complaints that it received to its office last year related to Tusla. While we acknowledge and agree that Tusla should be the body in this legislation that is the primary actor, we cannot ignore what is a significant concern about resourcing. When we put in a timeframe like six months from conviction, I just think we need to all be assured that the agency has the resources and the competencies to be able to act from day one of that conviction at least. Again, that is something we will consider and discuss, I am sure, in future. Many others want to speak. I just want to take the opportunity to offer our party's full support. Deputies Gannon and Cairns tabled similar legislation in the past. It does not matter how we get there as long as we get there, and that is why we will support this Bill and we look forward to supporting it and working in earnest with the Minister and others. I commend the French family and all who have campaigned on this for so long at this point. It is a position that no one should be in, but today marks a very important day in that journey, and I commend them all for that.

Sentiment score: 0.46