Ms Kate Duggan:

It is primarily the dedicated family link workers we have already spoken about. They are dedicated and are across every one of Tusla's 17 areas. It is about parenting supports and very much about new mums, parent supports, cooking capacity, parenting capacity and really supporting them to be good parents, to be able to look after their children and feel confident in looking after their children. As Ms Jordan said, through the CYPSC programmes Tusla leads across all the geographic areas of the country there are lots of programmes that are targeted where there has been a needs assessment done. It is back to Senator Byrne's observation that sometimes it is different programmes in different parts of the country because of what the identified need is within that area.

What we want to do more than anything is ensure Traveller parents engage with our wider services because there is a huge range of services available through early intervention and family support. If we look back on last year's figures, there were over 96,500 referrals into Tusla and there may have been about 600 admissions to care. Tusla responds to maybe 90,000 children and families where the question is not about taking the children into care but responding in terms of early intervention and family support. We want Traveller families to feel confident to engage with those services. It goes wider. The real concern, when we talk to members of the Traveller community or some of the staff who work with us is domestic violence, mental health and suicidal ideation. It is the huge concerns they have about talking about issues and it is trying to work with them through the likes of CYPSC initiatives and in consultation with some of the programmes with the HSE or through the family resource centres to get that early intervention in terms of just open and honest conversations and trusting public services.