Reform history

## PART 1 Preliminary and General

**1.** (1) This Act may be cited as the Children First Act 2015.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or provisions.

**2.** In this Act—

(a) an offence against the child, specified in *Schedule 3*,

“welfare” includes, in relation to a child, the moral, intellectual, physical, emotional and social welfare of the child.

**3.** (1) The Minister may by regulations provide for any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(3) Every regulation under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within 21 days on which that House sits after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

**4.** (1) A notice that is required to be served on a person under this Act shall be addressed to the person by name and may be so served in one of the following ways:

(2) For the purposes of this section, a company within the meaning of the Companies Acts shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its registered office, and every other body corporate and every unincorporated body of persons, shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its principal office or place of business.

**5.** The expenses incurred by the Minister or any other Minister of the Government in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

**6.** (1) The Minister may issue guidelines for the purpose of providing practical guidance to persons in respect of the protection and welfare of children.

(3) Any guidelines that have been issued by the Minister before the commencement of this subsection for the purpose of providing practical guidance in respect of the protection and welfare of children, and that are in force immediately before that commencement, shall, on such commencement, be deemed to be guidelines issued under *subsection (1)*.

**7.** The Agency shall, in performing a function under this Act, regard the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration.

## PART 2 Child Safeguarding Statements

**8.** In this Part—

“relevant person” means a person who is appointed by a provider of a relevant service to be the first point of contact in respect of the provider’s child safeguarding statement.

**9.** A person who would but for this section be regarded as a provider of a relevant service shall not be a provider for the purposes of this Part if the relevant service being provided by the person concerned is—

(c) undertaken on an occasional basis only for no consideration at a school, sports or community event or activity.

**10.** A provider of a relevant service shall ensure, as far as practicable, that each child availing of the service from the provider is safe from harm while availing of that service.

**11.** (1) Where a person proposes to operate as a provider of a relevant service, he or she shall, within 3 months from the date on which he or she commences as such a provider—

(10) In this section “member of staff” means, in relation to a provider, a person referred to in sub *paragraph (i)*, *(ii)* or *(iii)* of *paragraph (b)* of the definition of “provider” as set out in *section 8*.

**12.** (1) Where, pursuant to a request made by the Agency under *section 11(5)(b)(ii)*, a provider of a relevant service fails to furnish the Agency with a copy of the provider’s child safeguarding statement, the Agency may, by notice in writing served on the provider—

(9) The jurisdiction conferred on the District Court under this section shall be exercised by a judge of that court for the time being assigned to the District Court district in which the person on whom the non-compliance notice is served ordinarily resides or carries on any profession, business or occupation.

**13.** (1) The Agency shall establish and maintain a register of non-compliance notices (in this Act referred to as the “register of non-compliance”).

## PART 3 Reporting

**14.** (1) Subject to *subsections (3)*, *(4)*, *(5)*, *(6)* and *(7)*, where a mandated person knows, believes or has reasonable grounds to suspect, on the basis of information that he or she has received, acquired or becomes aware of in the course of his or her employment or profession as such a mandated person, that a child—

(12) Nothing in this section shall operate to affect any other obligation that a person has to disclose information to a member of An Garda Síochána under the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 or to any other person by or under any other enactment or rule of law.

**15.** (1) The chief executive officer of the Agency shall authorise in writing such member or members of staff of the Agency as he or she considers appropriate for the purposes of receiving reports under *section 14*and such person or persons shall, in this Act, be referred to as an authorised person or authorised persons.

(3) Where an authorised person receives a report under *section 14*, he or she shall forward, or cause to be forwarded, an acknowledgement in writing stating the date of receipt of the report to the mandated person or persons who made the report.

**16.** (1) Where the Agency receives a report from a mandated person or persons under *section 14*, the Agency may, for the purposes of assessing whether a child who is the subject of that report or any other child—

(c) the production to the Agency of any document or thing.

**17.** (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, information shared by the Agency with another person (in this subsection referred to as a “relevant person”) in the course of carrying out an assessment arising from a report under *section 14* shall not be disclosed to a third party by the relevant person, save in accordance with law or under and in accordance with an authorisation under *subsection (2)*.

(7) Notwithstanding section 10(4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851, proceedings for an offence under this section may be instituted at any time within 12 months from the date of the offence.

**18.** The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 is amended, in Schedule 2, by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph 11:

“12. The Child and Family Agency.”.

**19.** The Child and Family Agency Act 2013 is amended, in section 9(4), by the substitution of “the Adoption Act 2010, the Children First Act 2015 or” for “the Adoption Act 2010 or”.

## PART 4 Children First Inter-Departmental Implementation Group and Sectoral Implementation Plans

**20.** As soon as may be after the commencement of this section, the Minister shall establish a group to be known as the Children First Inter-Departmental Implementation Group, and in this Act referred to as the “Implementation Group”, to perform the functions assigned to it by this Act.

**21.** (1) The Implementation Group shall consist of—

(c) an employee of the Agency nominated by the chief executive officer of the Agency;

(4) The Minister may at any time dissolve the Implementation Group.

**22.** The functions of the Implementation Group shall be to—

(f) provide information or advice, or make proposals, to the Minister on matters relating to the functions of the Implementation Group referred to in *paragraphs (a)*, *(b)*, *(c)*, *(d)* and *(e)*.

**23.** (1) The Minister may give a direction in writing to the Implementation Group in relation to the performance by the Implementation Group of its functions under this Act, requiring it to comply with such policies of the Government as are specified in the direction.

(3) The Implementation Group shall comply with a direction given to it under this section.

**24.** (1) An appointment made under *section 21(1)*shall, subject to the provisions of this Part, be on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the Minister.

(i) if he or she ceases to be an employee of the Health Service Executive, or

(3) If a member of the Implementation Group dies or ceases to be a member of the Group, the Minister may appoint a person to be a member of the Implementation Group to fill the vacancy so occasioned in the same manner as the member of the Implementation Group who occasioned the vacancy was appointed.

**25.** (1) The Implementation Group shall hold such and so many meetings as may be necessary for the performance of its functions and may, subject to the provisions of this Part, make such arrangements for the conduct of its meetings and business as it considers appropriate.

(b) if and so long as the chairperson of the Implementation Group is not present, or if that office is vacant, the members of the Implementation Group who are present shall choose one of their number to be the chairperson of the meeting.

**26.** (1) The Implementation Group shall, not later than 30 June of each calendar year, prepare and submit to the Minister a report on the performance of its functions and activities during the preceding year or, in the case of the first such report, its functions and activities since the date it was established up to and including 31 December of the preceding year.

(5) A report under *subsection (4)* shall be in such form and shall be made within such period as the Minister may specify.

**27.** (1) Each Minister of the Government shall, as soon as may be after the commencement of this section, prepare and publish a plan (in this Act referred to as a “sectoral implementation plan”) in relation to the matters referred to in *subsection (2)* outlining the programme of measures taken or proposed to be taken by or on behalf of the Minister concerned to ensure that—

## PART 5 Miscellaneous

**28.** The Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 24:

(3) This section shall not affect the operation of section 24.”.