Ms Ciara McKenna-Keane:

I was the lead investigator in the Molly case. In respect of the care plan, Molly did have one. She always had an allocated social worker. In these cases, the family also has a link social worker for them. Molly, as a child in care, would have her own social worker. However, as the committee will see from the statement we published yesterday, the social workers found that their hands were tied. The case spans 14 years. It was initially the responsibility of the HSE's child and family services, which then moved to Tusla at the beginning of 2014. As we said in the report, during that time the social workers did engage in exhaustive advocacy. However, they felt that they could not do anything at that level and in fact they were the ones who came forward. It was the family's link social worker who came forward and said the family should report it to the Ombudsman for Children's office because the social workers could not do anything at their level.