Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

That case was referenced in the Ombudsman for Children's report. The sequence of events, including the failure to comply with the appeal's decision, happened before the service formally transferred to the Department in 2011. We have been trying to ensure greater consistency, bearing in mind that the community welfare services were operating out of more than 700 locations and numbered approximately 1,000 staff when we took them over. While respecting the discretion of community welfare officers to deal with the situations that presented, we wanted to bring to bear the Department's principles, values and experience in trying to ensure consistency and adherence to legislation and statutory entitlements. A great deal of work has been undertaken in terms of providing training supports, workshops and the development of guidelines in order that people can be clearer about their roles and responsibilities. Unfortunately, I cannot give the Deputy an absolute guarantee, but I am confident that we have taken many measures to try to ensure such issues do not arise again. If we become aware of any, we will do our best to resolve it as quickly as possible.