Ms Kate Duggan:

I will discuss reunification and permanency planning in a moment. On young people missing from care, it is important that we address that issue and share that concern. It is absolutely critical for us that any child or young person whose whereabouts is unknown be recorded and that that record be kept alive and open until the Garda locates that child and confirms to us that their whereabouts are known. We have joint protocols and working protocols with the Garda in that regard. On our mainstream services, that is, children in residential and foster care services, every child has an absence management plan and has to have one as part of our services being regulated. For some children, where we are very concerned about their behaviour, that absence management plan might indicate they have to be reported as missing if they are more than 15 minutes away from their expected return time. The missing data includes those children reported as missing but whose whereabouts are actually known. They are children who have not returned to their residential unit but have made contact with their social care leader or social care worker to say they are in X house or in Dundrum and ask whether they can be sent pocket money. They are children we work with and respond to. They are still counted as missing because they are not where they should be, in their residential unit, at a point in time when we collect the data. We work really hard on this and they are reported as missing straightaway. It is the Garda's responsibility to seek to locate them. We give the Garda all the information available to us.

On separated children seeking international protection, I have described young people who turn up in our offices, many of whom are over 16. Most are around 17 years of age. When they are met by the International Protection Office under the Department of justice, if they are believed to be a minor or state that they are a minor, they are immediately referred to Tusla for a child protection response. They come to us for an assessment under eligibility. There were more than 800 of those young people last year alone for whom we had to provide a placement. Many of them indicate to us at that point their intention to travel on and that Ireland is not the destination they want to be in. Many say they are making their way to meet their families. We still take all of that information seriously. As the Senator said, on the figures we spoke about, most recently there are 28 young people who remain reported as missing. We have ensured the Garda, through its engagement with colleagues in the UK, Northern Ireland and Interpol, have the names and details of those young people on their books. Twelve of those young people have been reported missing in 2025. The whereabouts of 13 of those young people are unknown since 2024 and the others are just over that. We continue to count them as missing because the Garda has not located them. Our worry for all of those young people is any risk of trafficking or exploitation. A significant action we have taken over the past two years is partnering with MECPATHS, the not-for-profit organisation we rely on for the best in practice in relation to exploitation and trafficking. We now fund MECPATHS to provide training to our staff and staff in our community, voluntary and residential services. More important is the work it does across the State training people in hospitality, working at airports-----