Ms Tanya Ward:

It is of huge concern, to be honest. Living through homeless accommodation puts parents under enormous pressure and stress. They often need extra support. One of the ways in which the Government has tried to support people in homeless accommodation is through putting in child support workers. Focus Ireland would say that there needs to be an expansion of the numbers of child support workers in order that every child can get access to one. That might just be to help the parent to navigate how to get the child to school or it might be to get Tusla social workers involved in a place.

Focus Ireland has a centre specifically for families on Gardiner Street. Those kinds of centres are really important because a family can come in, make the dinner, wash the clothes and do that kind of thing. It also means there are professionals there who can work with them and potentially refer them in. In the most serious child protection cases that have happened where children have slipped through the net, one of the most famous of which was the Victoria Climbié case on the UK, families have been moving around in homeless accommodation and have lost the connection with the child protection social worker. That kind of front-facing intervention is important to make sure the really vulnerable child does not slip through the net.