Mr. Doncha O'Sullivan:

My understanding is that, in practice, Tusla makes an assessment as to whether the person should receive childcare services. In so doing, it effectively is making a determination as to whether that person is in fact a child. There are cases where someone comes to us claiming that they are a child. We bring that person to Tusla and Tusla subsequently comes back to us and says it does not think the person is entitled to child services because it thinks he or she is an adult. We admit that person then to the process. The delay I was referring to earlier is because this is often disputed between the applicant, perhaps with their lawyer, and ourselves and Tusla, meaning that these cases need to be examined further.