Ms Nuala Ward:

At a very senior level, we meet with the CEOs of the HSE and Tusla and with chief operations officers. If there are systemic issues that we have already investigated and new cases are coming into us, we will put them at their door and tell them that we have already investigated them and they need to fix them for those children. At local level, obviously, my team can deal with people on the ground, the decision makers. They are the most important people. We will go up the line until we get it resolved and if that means going to the very top, we will go to the very top. We use our authority with great care and great respect to the people on the ground.

However, our role is to advocate for children when something has gone wrong for them by services. We will use that to the most senior level that is appropriate to get things fixed.