Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 April 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Special Report No. 96 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: Child Abuse Inquiry and Redress

9:00 am

Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

First of all, I would echo the Deputy's sentiment that it is a very valuable service. It is one that we continue to provide and will continue to provide and support until the demand for it ceases. We currently have a service agreement with Barnardos in Dublin for its operation and we have a performance delivery agreement with Barnardos about how they operate it. We reviewed the scheme in 2011 and we downsized it slightly because the demand had reduced. I am not aware of difficulties in co-operation between Barnardos, in operating the tracing service, and the orders. It is certainly something we can check on and come back to the Deputy on.