Ms Kate Duggan:

As we are dealing with the accounts, it is also important to give an assurance in this regard. This case dates back to before 2017. If we look at the situation in 2025, since 2016 to 24 September last, Tusla received 73 protected disclosures. We welcome that and think it is a really positive sign of people in the agency speaking out and speaking up when they have a concern. As of 24 September, only 24 protected disclosures were still open. Currently, none of those is being investigated externally and we have no third-party costs arising. We all sit here and look back to pre-2017 to something that was very complex, that was very litigious and that went on for years. We did then mediate cost effectively in the end.

I do want to give an assurance, however. It is important to bring us to today in terms of where we are regarding those costs and other legal costs we are dealing with now. We keep a very tight oversight of this area. We currently have about 15 cases open, or we had in 2024. Damages were paid in two of those cases. They were not paid to staff; they were paid in respect of a situation where there was an age assessment issue in relation to our separated children seeking international protection service and a data protection matter. To date this year, there have been five cases and, again, damages relating to two age assessment cases. This is where somebody we deem not to be a child or not under 18 and challenges this through the courts. There was also a defamation case. I want to give the committee an assurance around where we are today vis-à-vis where we are today in the context of something we are talking about that started pre-2017.