Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today to go through the work. It is a very broad remit, and as a first-time committee member there is much for me to take in. It is great that the witnesses could come in and go through that.

My first question relates to Covid-19. Has Tusla come across many children who have completely disengaged from education because of Covid-19? I know it has been a really difficult time and children who were already finding school harder or had difficulties at school or at home would have found it harder to go back. Has Tusla identified how many children did not go back into education and what level of supports is it providing to those children?

I am trying to work to see what Tusla's processes are and how it engages with different families in different instances. I imagine there are very many difficult positions in which Tusla is involved. From a process perspective, I imagine that for each of the scenarios, Tusla has an identified process that staff would follow. In particular, if there is an allegation of sexual abuse of a child by a party within his or her own family, what process does Tusla follow? Is that articulated anywhere or publicly available?

I have heard anecdotally that families are having different experiences. It is clearly very distressing for families and children. They are wondering if their experience is standard. In the event that families feel they have had experiences that would not be best practice in their mind, what would be their comeback? Do they have anywhere they can go or anybody they can speak to about the experience they had with Tusla?