A STANDALONE ministry with responsibility for children’s issues becomes a reality from tomorrow with the formal creation of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.
This will be followed tomorrow with the transfer of functions currently with other Government departments to the new department.
The transfer of powers requires legislation which is expected to be in place before the summer.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said yesterday she planned to report shortly on progress being made in implementing the Ryan report into clerical sexual abuse, which was published two years ago.
Separately, a report on clerical child sexual abuse in the Cloyne diocese is unlikely to be published for another three weeks, a Government spokesman said yesterday.
