<p>
	Child and Family Agency say provision of Act invoked to take children &ldquo;has and will continue to be&rdquo; a force for good</p>
<p>
	Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday apologised to the Roma families whose children were taken into care last year amid fears they had been abducted.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;I do apologise to those families, particularly the children who had to put up with these events,&rsquo;&rsquo; Mr Kenny said in the D&aacute;il. &ldquo;These kinds of events should not happen to anybody in our jurisdiction, and nobody can afford to stand over that or can stand over it. My Government colleagues and I are determined that such events will never happen again.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	He added there was a cross-departmental review of Ireland&rsquo;s migrant integration strategy under way.</p>
<p>
	Opportunity<br />
	Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said the launch of the report was &ldquo;an opportunity to do something important&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;To say sorry,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the first thing I wanted to do today. To meet the two families who briefly lost their children and &ndash; in private and in public &ndash; to apologise to them on behalf of the State. The State is sorry.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;We regret the pain that they went through. It should not have happened. It just should not. It happened out of a determination to protect children, but that determination got skewed. The best of intentions played out in a distressing manner affecting two children and two families.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Child and Family Agency chief executive Gordon Jeyes said the provision of the Child Care Act invoked by the Garda to remove children from the two Roma families &ldquo;has and will continue to be&rdquo; a positive force for children in Ireland.</p>
<p>
	Tusla &ndash; the Child and Family Agency &ndash; is the dedicated State agency responsible for improving wellbeing and outcomes for children. Mr Jeyes said the decision to remove children from a family was &ldquo;always a difficult one&rdquo; which involves &ldquo;balancing the rights and freedoms of individuals against the statutory duty to protect and safeguard young people&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;The Garda play a key role in child protection in Ireland, not least when they use their judgment to act quickly to remove a child to safety,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991 has been, and will continue to be, a positive force for children in Ireland.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;Clearly aspects of the cases were unfortunate, not least the apparent lack of cultural sensitivity. Cultural awareness is a challenging area, and in a rapidly changing Ireland, it is essential that our approach is routinely scrutinised.</p>
<p>
	Review<br />
	&ldquo;Learning from past experience is key, and in this regard the Child and Family Agency is in the process of reviewing actions taken when a child is taken into care under section 12.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Immigrant Council of Ireland chief executive Denise Charlton said the findings of Emily Logan&rsquo;s report were &ldquo;shocking&rdquo; and said the recommendations made ought to be treated as &ldquo;a blueprint to bring down the barriers which exist between many communities and garda&iacute;&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;We have been concerned about the issue of ethnic profiling and had sought assurances in advance of these cases that safeguards were in place to prevent such practices,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Looking to the future we are asking that the measures to end profiling are prioritised to ensure that confidence is restored in the force&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/taoiseach-apologies-to-families-of-roma-children-1.1851871">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/taoiseach-apologies-to-families-of-roma-children-1.1851871</a></p>
