Ms Bronagh Gibson:

Tusla has developed an integrated information system. It is an electronic system that is accessible throughout the country. If a child who may be known to the child protection service in Donegal moves to Cork, his or her information will be accessed by the local service area. That is in place in all 17 Tusla service areas throughout the country. It is in the early stages of implementation in some of those areas and has some of the teething problems that one would imagine. However, it does have good systems in respect of who can access it, depending on the grade of information it holds. In a recent inspection we found that the kind of teething problems it was experiencing are around the kind of information, and sections of the system, that can be accessed, and that there are some similar issues, whether the system is paper or IT. Social workers need to update the system, keep it updated and have the time to do that. They do have administrative support now in many service areas to do that.

There have been many positive changes in that regard.