Mr. Jim Gibson:

I will answer the question on interagency collaboration and co-operation and where I would rate Tusla in that regard. There was some reference to Dr. Shannon's report which was on a totally different area. It was also a look back at 2014. This is 2017. I would like to make that distinction. Notifications which were referred to in the report were about An Garda Síochána. We have agreed with the recommendations of that report.

With regard to our collaborative approach, I would like to speak from an evidence-based position and outline some things which Tusla has established and which have gathered momentum. In every county in Ireland there is a children and young people's services committee. Area managers within Tusla are the chairpersons of these committees and Tusla pushed for their establishment. They are multidisciplinary and interagency by their very nature. They have worked up plans for each county which have been submitted to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. These plans are worked on proactively. These committees connect with the local authorities and they plan to assist local authorities in submitting their local development and community plans to Government. We are very much involved.

More importantly, when we were established we said very clearly that there was a dearth of early intervention and family support initiatives throughout Ireland. From day one we have proactively bought into very strategic relationships with Atlantic Philanthropies and the National University of Ireland, Galway to build our prevention, partnership and family support. People would have heard of the Meitheal programme around Ireland. That is an excellent example of collaboration and interagency working because there are representatives from every discipline and every agency involved in the programme. The Meitheal programme is about a team around the child. I will give another example. There was a young boy whose uncle-----