Child and Family Agency
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Aidan Farrelly (SD), Kildare North

I thank the Minister for that update. I hear sincerity in her response and I give her my assurance that, from a Social Democrats perspective, whatever we can do to support the Government in trying to seek that legislative change in this instance, I think it would be really important. If we are going to do it, why not do it right in this instance in respect of 12-year-olds and 13-years-olds who experienced lockdown going through a very troubling transition between primary school and secondary school? It was a really troubled time. We need to hear from them in this process. Whatever we can do to support that, we will. I reiterate my thanks and commendation to those involved in this project because it is a significant undertaking. We have heard about the IT specialties that are required, the access to information and challenges. Before it even gets under way in real detail, I look forward to the recommendations that will come from this project in terms of future learnings for institutions of the State to make sure we have accurate information but also appropriate services to follow up. I look forward to further updates on this from the Minister and her Department as this project progresses.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19