Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also thank Dr. Shannon for his presentation. It is refreshing to have someone speak so genuinely and passionately about children's rights because as I have said previously we continuously fail children in this State, both in the past and present.

Deputy Rabbitte touched on some of the questions I wanted to ask about section 12. Where there is repeated removal of a child, what recourse is there for a garda who comes across such situations on a regular basis? Is there anything he or she can do? Lack of accountability is an issue. Social workers can say the Garda is dealing with an issue because it was out of hours and then the Garda can say it thought the case had been handed over to a social worker. The inter-agency approach outlined by Dr. Shannon would address such situations because there must be accountability. Where does the buck stop in the case of repeated removals? Is it with Tusla? Can we say Tusla is failing children in such situations? If a child is constantly being removed it is the role of Tusla to oversee that.

Tusla was before the committee last week. I said that personally I did not have any confidence in it and the role it plays and that it has failed far too many children. A case was referenced about two foster children in the same home where there were repeated complaints by the birth mother of one of the children. The response, that one would not necessarily remove a child as it could be detrimental and one would have to review the situation and monitor it and put different systems in place, was very vague. Does Dr. Shannon have any comments on a case such as the one I outlined where there are two foster children and there are repeated difficulties of a serious nature? What is best practice in that regard?