Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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The analytics side of Benefacts was quite a powerful tool. It was very useful for internal audit, for example. Tusla, for example, expressed an interest in its continuation for precisely that reason, the internal audit process. Was anything done to assess the impact of the loss of Benefacts on Tusla and how that might manifest? Funders such as the Department of Health, the HSE, the Department of Social Protection and a couple of local authorities contributed to the pilot project that was Benefacts and its information was comprehensive. There can be no accountability without transparency, and here was a very transparent database that was open source. It was very usable for internal audit purposes and Tusla expressed an interest in its continuation. What consideration did the Department give to Tusla and that function, which I am sure would have had a wider application?