Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There were a lot of questions there. I will try to cover them. Some of the more operational ones I will probably leave for Ms Duggan and her team.

The point about complexity is really important because Tusla is dealing with children in care who have a range of needs. Sometimes it is clear that with issues such as mental health and disability, the solutions are not all with Tusla but with other parts of the government and of the State. One of the things I am looking at is how we can better bring all the parties around the table to make sure all the needs of children in care are addressed. One of the things, as we bring the Child Care (Amendment) Bill through the Houses, is the committee on the Child Care Act, which is proposed, I think, under heading 11. I am looking to see if we can strengthen that somewhat so we can bring the other players besides Tusla around the table, particularly in order that when there is an issue of the intersectionality of a child in care and disability, where the HSE is important, or the intersection of a child in care and with mental health issues, where child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, are important, we can better co-ordinate that work. Tusla is looking after the elements around care for which it is principally responsible, but other State agencies are more closely involved as well. As that legislation goes through, I am sure we will discuss it here.

I met with one of the authors of the UCD report. We had a very detailed session on it. She took me through the various elements. It was very useful for me. In terms of addressing the specific issues relating to individual instances of potential sexual exploitation, Tusla has done a piece informing our Department to ensure that every one of the issues and concerns raised - I think there were 21 contributors to that report - about sexual exploitation to the authors had been briefed directly to either Tusla or An Garda Síochána using the sexual exploitation protocol that has been in place since 2021. It is a matter of making sure every instance that is mentioned in this report to the authors also went to the appropriate statutory channels. That piece has been done.

The second element is that this report is being referred on to the organisational and institutional abuse working group. That group was set up initially as a response to the St. John Ambulance report by Judge Shannon, but it is now getting the opportunity to review the UCD report. That is commissioning a piece of academic work at the moment, situating that report with other international pieces on institutional or organisational abuse. They will look at things like the Rotherham report, the Rochdale report and other reports internationally in which sexual exploitation of young people was flagged to see what we can learn in situating this report within its wider international context. I hope it will be seen not only that there is a very direct response to the specific instances that were mentioned to the authors but also that we are taking a step back and understanding what the wider response to that report needs to be.

I will hand over to Tusla colleagues.