Ms Kate Duggan:

I accept what the Senator is saying. I believe for us, there was a process going on and there was a right to an appeal at the time that correspondence was written to a Deputy where it was responding to a particular query.

One of the issues the Senator talked about and which Mr. Corcoran can talk about in more detail is in regard to the proactive piece. I would not like this committee to think that we are just reactive as an organisation in terms both of child protection and particularly around the culture of safeguarding. Under the statutory powers we already have available to us, our child safeguarding statement unit will and is engaging proactively with organisations. I will give two examples.

We have just recently finished a project in collaboration with HIQA and the HSE where we have looked at the safeguarding statements and practices across 137 disability services. That would have been triggered by, and where we know it is again linked to, the conversation earlier about giving additional safeguarding powers. We know that in disability services which are regulated, there is still a risk of harm and abuse. This is a proactive piece in strengthening child protection. That report is due for publication very shortly and has been completed.

We have also completed a survey with parents, and Mr. Corcoran can give the committee more detail on that, which asks parents about their understanding around safeguarding. Those parents have told us they are not aware to a great extent of the types of questions they should be asking or the types of information they should be looking for when they are bringing their children and young people to these types of organisations.

Certainly, when we talk about additional powers, there is another part of the proportionality and the additional resources which could be provided to allow us to do much more of that proactive safeguarding work. That is something we are doing and want to do more of. I assure the committee we certainly are working in a proactive way in ensuring child protection is strengthened and robust.

As part of the interdepartmental group, there would have been a very significant campaign around Children First awareness and there is another campaign for that planned in 2023. When something like this has happened and we have received a report, Tusla proactively pushed for this investigation to be done. Now that this report is in the public domain and tells us all that it does, we all have to take stock, learn and look to see what we could have and should have done differently. Most importantly, we must ask what we must collectively do across all of the organisations and estates. This report is telling us that unless there is a culture from the top to the bottom which promotes child protection and safeguarding, we can never be assured around the mitigation of risk to children.