Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and for coming here today. Some of my questions were covered in relation to unaccompanied minors. I understand that 38 had gone missing last year and 29 of them had been separated children. Obviously there is massive pressure on Tusla, including lack of resources. Kate Duggan had mentioned about 570 this year coming in as unaccompanied minors. I was also aware that HIQA had done inspections and found that Tusla was not following the national protocols for cases involving minors. What has Tusla done to fix that? The Cathaoirleach has asked how many children are still missing. Ms Kavanagh clarified that it is 19. Do the witnesses fear the children had possibly been trafficked or involved in sexual exploitation? Has the Garda identified any trafficking rings? A 2023 report by Dr. Mary Canning from UCD found that gangs are clearly targeting children in care, sometimes in the lobbies of IPAS centres. She also pointed out that a lot of the staff in the IPAS centres are quite young and they did not have the necessary training on how to handle this and how to challenge the situation. Is that still an issue? That UCD report was from 2023, so obviously children were being trafficked and targeted for sexual exploitation. Do the witnesses believe that this is still going on?