Ms Tanya Ward:

I have not seen that, to be honest. I see missing child alerts all the time. We need to look at a review of the story to see what happened. Did the alerts go out quickly enough for this ten-year-old child? What I pick up from the media is that the care team had contact with the child but in the meantime the child fell into some form of harm. A review is very important to look at the timelines. I do not think there is a double standard but I think it is more difficult for the Garda to locate children who leave the jurisdiction. This concerns me because they could come to some form of harm or exploitation. It will always be in the best interests of those children to stay here in the care of Tusla. The best thing to do is for Tusla social workers and residential care workers to develop a good relationship with these young people so they are not exploited by other adults or misinformed. If they want to reunify with a family member in another country, they should be doing it with the support of Tusla and not without it.