Ms Kate Duggan:

As I said, we cannot talk about specific cases. We know that until the May or June of that particular year, as has been widely reported, Kyran was in school. He was being seen by teachers, and parents at the gate. There were many other services involved, as any other child of that age is seen. I will move away from that case and go back to the point that parents must look for early help. Family members may know that a parent is struggling and should look for early help for them. We have a responsibility to ensure that we are linking in with public health nurses, teachers and other relevant people in those children's lives.

It also comes back to the fact that we have had 96,000 referrals, with an expected 103,000 or 104,000 this year. With the resources we have, we are absolutely responding, I hope, in all cases where there is an immediate and obvious risk of harm. Where there is a lower level of concern around family support or a child welfare case, there are waiting lists for children. We do not have allocated workers for those children. We must use the resources to ensure we see those who are most at risk. We want to be able to respond to all children at the earliest possible time.