Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate what the Vice Chairman has just said. The extraordinary passion that Dr. Shannon brings to the welfare of children is hugely significant. I thank him for his report. I immediately propose what he suggested at the start about inviting him back. I do not know if he has a monitoring role in terms of implementation. If he does not, he should. Implementation is absolutely crucial, as he and the Vice Chairman have stated.

The main issue for me concerns co-location and inter-agency communication. Representatives of Tusla have attended the committee and we have already had some discussion around Dr. Shannon's report. As Dr. Shannon said, notification is not communication and we need a working relationship that puts the children at its centre. In his written submission to the committee, Dr. Shannon said that the audit sought to evaluate the nature of inter-agency communication between Tusla and An Garda Síochána and that it sought to examine the processes and cultures, if any, in which Tusla social workers provide feedback on cases to Garda members following their removal of children under section 12. Section 12 is relied on where there is a serious and urgent child protection risk. It is an extraordinary responsibility for the Garda and, from what Dr. Shannon said in the report, it is highly sensitive to it. The real concern, however, is the fact that there does not seem to be the interaction and real mutual respect for professionals that Dr. Shannon spoke about as well.

The Minister has stated that she will publish an implementation plan and speaks about having an assigned social worker to the recently established Garda Síochána national child protection unit. What I want to tease out is what is required at the local level for each individual child in terms of communication between the Garda and Tusla and the requirement on Tusla to have that real proper communication, feedback and engagement with other services and not just the Garda. This may be with teachers or whoever else might identify issues for children. That is the main area I wanted to ask Dr. Shannon about.

I fully support Dr. Shannon in terms of the need for a full 24 hour, out of hours service for all children in the country. The ISPCC, which operates a listening service, has pointed out to us as well that it is absolutely essential. Does Dr. Shannon know if there is some kind of resistance from Tusla to that? I do not know if there is but I would be interested to know if there is. As a committee, we have to say that it is essential.

There is a new system called Signs of Safety being introduced by Tusla. I was pursuing this last week. It sounds good in so far as it is concerns involving and training people such as gardaí, teachers and community people. I do not know enough about it. It will be implemented. Tusla staff are already being trained in it. My specific question relates to risk assessment in that situation and ensuring that, when spreading responsibility for child safety, we are not in a way leaving nobody responsible where there is a significant risk level. I apologise for all the questions.