Ms Nuala Ward:

In relation to our engagement with the Departments and with services over time, we have seen a definite shift in recognising the need to move towards more child-centred rights-based approach to care that involves families more, but there is a huge amount more to do. What the Cathaoirleach asked about priorities is a really important question. I think when you ask a State about its priorities, you are really asking what we value as a society and if we value these children. What is really important for us, as the Office of the Ombudsman for Children, is the disability action plan that is due to be published by the Government Department and how much money and budget we, as a State, are going to invest in that action plan that we have all been waiting on for some time. There is no question that disability services have been under-resourced and have never had enough investment in order to ensure that these children and families get the services they need. We will be looking very closely at that action plan. In particular, the reason we submitted the recommendation both Ministers, that when they publish that action plan they also set up an independent monitoring system, is so that the State will be held to account for the commitment it makes at this time, supposedly before the end of 2023, to these children and families.

At a service level, a number of years ago we also published Molly's case. It detailed an investigation into the case of a girl with profound disabilities who was in the care of the State. Yet again, we found that the HSE and Tusla failed to work together in order to meet her needs. We found that Tusla saw her as a child in care, the HSE saw her as a child with a disability, but nobody saw her as Molly, a young teenage girl who needed to be looked after by the State. We made a number of recommendations. For the first time, and we appreciated and acknowledged it at the time, the CEOs of both agencies wrote back to us jointly and said that they were going to work together. We have definitely seen improvements. In fairness, since Jack's case we have seen a shift from Tusla. That is why we have acknowledged that it has moved along in terms of providing support when it gets referrals from families when they just want some family support.

Going back to it, it is about leadership at a Government level and the question of whether we value these children. If we do, then they will become our priority.