Ms Kate Duggan:

When we talk about the Tusla reform programme and transformation programme, they can sound like empty words. Just over 18 months ago, we sat down to look at what our data is telling us. What our data was telling us was that we needed to restructure our services to make sure that when a referral comes to our service, it is responded to in the right way. Today, all referrals that come to our agency, whether they involve very significant evidence of harm or abuse or a mother who needs support to parent her children, go through the same process. This has created the issues described by the Deputy where there have been delays in accessing the right service and issues we do not want, for example, referrers receiving correspondence saying that something "does not meet the threshold". That is factually correct. It may not meet the threshold for a child protection response but the response is something different.

We have designed our new operating model. We must wait until 1 January to go live because it involves significant changes across our finance and reporting systems. We are going live on 1 January 2026 with a new way of having a single point of entry within a smaller network area where the child will be screened by a more multidisciplinary team, needs are identified immediately and the child does not have to go through a social work child protection response if that is not what is indicated. If a child needs a protective response, he or she will get it quicker. If a child needs to go to a family support response, he or she will get that more quickly. That is now enabled because, for the first time, we have a single child digital record. We are one of the only child protection systems in Europe to have this. We will now be able to have a single point of contact to see what a child's needs are and the interventions across the agency. The programme's ambition is to get to cases, catch issues sooner and make sure children are not too late coming to the table for the particular intervention.

There is restructuring within our resources and structures but we are seeing increased demand for our services year on year. Based on what the data is telling us today, we expect to tip over 104,000 referrals in 2025. That increase in demand for services does mean that we also need additional investment in those front-line early intervention family support and child protection services.