Ms Deirdre O'Shea:

To clarify in terms of the complaints we receive regarding the actions of the Child and Family Agency, they tend to relate to issues we have represented generally in the reports we have put before the committee. That was part of the rationale for bringing those forward. A large number involve complaints regarding children in care and the service provision there. That is what prompted us to conduct the meta-analysis to look at overarching themes so that it would not be necessary to reinvestigate individual cases and to look at getting the underlying issues addressed in relation to that.

In terms of the handling of child protection concerns, we see complaints that relate to the length of time things take, non-responsiveness or difficulty in accessing those investigation or support services. In some ways, those were the key issues of concern that were raised in the context of the north Lee investigation. That is also part of the reason we are bringing that here. We are conscious of the increasing referral levels. It is about capacity to respond and applying the policy and procedures they have, which was raised through our Children First investigation.

We are examining those cases individually. If there are issues and areas in which we can identify improvements, we make recommendations. We see once we start to examine those cases that there is an improvement in terms of issues being resolved. We always take the opportunity to see how things could be improved and addressed better. It is important that HIQA's role on inspection is commenced. We are looking at individual cases, but the overall practice and how that is responded to is something in respect of which HIQA has an important role to play.