Mr. Pat Dennigan:

I would like to answer Senator McGreehan's question in two ways. It is a challenge we constantly come across in Focus Ireland. We deal with cross-agency and cross-Department issues all the time, be it any of the local authorities around the country, Tusla in dealing specifically with children or the HSE and some of its provisions. There needs to be a whole-of-government or whole-of-State approach to address that.

I would like to address Deputy Ward's question but it would be useful to bring in our ambassador from our Leap programme, Ms Kelly Anne Byrne, who is with us today, to answer that. First-hand experience of dealing with one's own family and all those agencies in seeking help would probably be of relevance to the committee.