Page 1370 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 10 May 1994
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Mr Stevenson said robustly that it should never happen. In an ideal world, Mr Stevenson, perhaps it should never happen, because in an ideal world all parents would care for their children and no parent would abuse their children; but, unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world, and there are circumstances where children are being harmed and being physically and sexually assaulted and it is necessary for the state to intervene.
Mr Stevenson: I agree.
MR CONNOLLY: I am pleased that you agree. I think we would all agree that it is undesirable, but we would all agree that it has to occur. Those persons whose job it is to be on the sharp end and to actually make these decisions have a very difficult job. It is almost impossible to please everybody in those circumstances. I have great admiration for those officers who work in children's services - who, for nearly the last three years, have been under my ministerial responsibility. I thank them for their efforts in the period that I was Minister, and I am sure that Mr Lamont will express similar concerns as he gets to know and appreciate the dedicated effort that those persons make.
Equally, the task of the Community Advocate and her staff is not an easy one, because it involves reviewing many of those difficult decisions. The decision of the Government to create a Community Advocate was, to some extent, a bold one because the Community Advocate has extensive powers to go into the social welfare bureaucracy to hunt out the cases that fall between the stools and to bring to the attention of the authorities - and that often means public attention - cases where the system does not go right. That can be embarrassing for governments, but so it should be. We should have a powerful authority to bring those cases to our attention, to ensure that we redouble our efforts to provide appropriate services.
I thank Assembly members for their support for the legislation. I am sure that all Assembly members would join me in thanking the officers whose job it is, day in and day out, to work at the coalface of this most difficult area of public policy where the state has to intervene to take a child away from the family setting because that family setting is not functioning as we would all want it to do and a child, rather than enjoying the protection of the family that every child should have the right to expect, is in fact suffering at the hands of that family. Those officers do a very good job. They serve the community extraordinarily well, and I am sure that we all thank them.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
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