Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will bring in an example that happened in my personal network this week. It relates to a mother who has a child and already cares for her grandchildren. They have a wide extended family. A new baby was born to the parents who have had the rest of their children taken into care. Tusla intervened and took the child without communicating with the grandmother who has the children. The grandmother's sister put herself forward to take the new baby and was told it was not appropriate because she lives in a two-bedroom apartment. She lives in a two bedroom apartment with her daughter. How does any working-class family stand a chance when we do not have options as to where we live? We all live on top of each other anyway.

Mr. Quinlan referred to the very careful approach and said all avenues are exhausted. When Tusla goes to court, it has to show it has exhausted all avenues, yet at local level I encountered a family who were not even told a new baby was being taken into care. The family is already involved with the system because they are actually caring for the other grandchildren.