Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Duggan for her statements and her colleagues for being here. I acknowledge the scale of what Tusla is managing. It is enormous, even just in my county of Kerry, where more than 2,500 child protection and welfare referrals were dealt with last year, while more than 2,000 young people were referred to family support services. To be honest, this has to be commended. We also have to speak about the poor narrative relating to management and getting it right.

As the witnesses outlined, Tusla is dealing with more than 96,000 children. The resource is increasingly strained. Numbers will keep climbing if we are looking at them properly. Have we enough resources to manage more of a workload for the staff? In life, you learn nothing from your victories. You learn more from losses. There has already been reference to the tragic case of Kyran Durnin. I still believe that this should haunt us all. A young boy was failed by the very system meant to protect him. His death was not just a tragedy; it was an indictment. It exposed gaps in accountability-----