Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

HIQA Report: Engagement with Tusla

2:00 pm

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Hold on. I will finish my question. Does that mean all senior staff are involved in ensuring there is absolute capture? Yesterday's Irish Examinerstates:

Tusla failed to address 65 abuse cases despite concerns children were still at “potential risk”;

Tusla closed 164 suspected child sexual abuse cases despite not knowing if the matters were resolved.

How can anyone watching these proceedings be reassured when Mr. McBride is telling us that Tusla does not have enough staff, that there is a massive rate of attrition and that there is only a small cohort of senior staff which is not increasing to any great extent? How can the witnesses assure us that when cases are presented at the so-called front door of Tusla they will be filtered, assessed for risk and managed properly? Tusla got an additional €40 million last year and its overall resources for 2018 amount to approximately €753 million. The organisation is in receipt of three quarters of a billion in taxpayers' money, yet HIQA reports are showing utterly disgraceful failures on the part of Tusla. Are the witnesses not ashamed of the fact that this situation pertains? I direct that last question to Mr. McBride, as head of the organisation.