Legislation for agency responsible for child protection to be published

Proposed legislation for a new agency that will take over responsibility for child protection services from the HSE will be published today.

Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, said the Dáil would next week debate planned legislation to set up the Child and Family Agency and there would be an opportunity to make amendments.

“I am not precious about the committee stage of the bill and, if we can improve the legislation, obviously that is something we will do as we go through it,” she said yesterday, at the launch in Dublin of a new report on the mental health needs of children.