Ms Kate Duggan:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Deputy Lawlor and the rest of the committee for the invitation to appear today. Before I begin with our submission, on behalf of Tusla I offer our deepest condolences to the families, friends and, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach said, the wider Traveller community who will find tomorrow to be a very difficult day. We certainly extend our thoughts and sympathies to them.

I am joined by my colleagues, Mr. Gerard Brophy, chief social worker, Ms Áine O’Keeffe, service director for Tusla educational support services, TESS, and Ms Caroline Jordan, interim area manager with responsibility for Garda liaison, Children First, family support and social inclusion. This is my first opportunity as chief executive officer of Tusla to appear before the committee. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet it today to discuss key issues affecting the Traveller community, particularly in relation to child protection and welfare, education support and family support services.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency is the State agency responsible for improving the safety and well-being of children and families through the provision of a range of services, including family support, child protection, alternative care - foster care and residential care - Tusla education support services and the children's services regulation service. In the 11 years since Tusla’s establishment, the agency has grown significantly, with a 100% increase in child protection and welfare referrals. In 2024, we received 96,666 child protection and welfare referrals and we expect that number to reach over 105,000 in 2025. Some 5,823 young people are in our foster care, residential care and aftercare services. Some 22,839 cases were open to social work; 48,443 young people received a family support service, and 8,659 young people were referred to our education support services for the 2024-2025 school year. In recent years, we have also developed and expanded our services and implemented new services in line with changing policy and legislation, such as the birth information and tracing service and childminding registration. We have rapidly scaled up services to respond to an almost 500% increase in separated children seeking international protection, with 893 of these young people being accommodated by, or in the care of, Tusla at the end of 2024.

As an agency we acknowledge the historical and ongoing marginalisation of the Traveller community in Ireland and we are committed to ensuring we adopt culturally sensitive approaches in our engagement with, and provision of services to, children and families who are part of the Traveller community. It is estimated that 32,949 Travellers live in Ireland, that 40% experience severe material deprivation, that they are significantly over-represented among the homeless, that they experience an unemployment rate of approximately 88%, and that 75% report discrimination. A significant number of Traveller children are estimated to live in poverty, with one recent survey suggesting this is as high as 96%, with high infant mortality and suicide rates. The percentage of Travellers who continue in education to third year is now at 91.6% and 78.3% sit junior cycle examinations - a 16% increase over the past seven years - and 26.5% sit leaving certificate, which is 4% increase in the past seven years, but many continue to report discrimination, bullying and racism in schools.

As an agency we do not currently collect and report on ethnicity data but we have a project in place to oversee this and expect it will be in place in 2026. Traveller families often mistrust public services, and we are seeking to promote more Traveller cultural awareness within Tusla and develop more culturally appropriate supports. We know from our engagement with the Traveller community and their representative organisations that the Traveller community has a fear of Tusla services and experiences stigma when engaging with Tusla services. This lack of trust in Tusla is a barrier for some to seeking and accessing our services in the community. Therefore, in 2023, we commissioned an independent organisation, Values Lab, to undertake a process to support the agency to understand, address and remove the barriers preventing Travellers from effectively engaging with, and deriving good outcomes from, Tusla services and supports. Learning from this is guiding our priorities for service planning and delivery. We are committed to building trust through our ongoing engagement with the Traveller community, strengthening our relationships with Traveller-led organisations, enhancing visibility and inclusion of Traveller voices in service design, and improving cultural competence among Tusla staff.

Tusla has a long-established national working group for Traveller children and families, which includes Traveller member and Traveller organisation representation. It was established initially to support co-ordination for reporting Tusla actions in the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, NTRIS, 2017-2021 and contributes to NTRIS II 2024–2028, which focuses on combatting racism, delivering culturally competent public services, and supporting health, education, and family well-being. Our work is also aligned with the Traveller and Roma Education Strategy 2024–2030, which aims to strengthen education-related supports and our work across this area is a priority for Tusla’s public sector and human rights duty programme.

Some key initiatives we hope to have the opportunity to discuss further with the committee today include our Traveller support parent programme with funding of €993,020 per year, which employs family link workers in the 17 Tusla areas to work only with Traveller parents and children. These workers are employed by local Traveller organisations and other community partners and provide culturally sensitive parenting programmes for Traveller parents with children aged between one and five.

The Tusla education support service, TESS, and the Department of Education and Youth employ 15 community link workers to improve school engagement, foster relationships between schools and Traveller families, and address educational disadvantage, with an investment of €1.25 million. More broadly, TESS has produced a five year attendance improvement plan to focus on improving the attendance of Traveller and Roma children and young people, and has an established team in place dedicated to reduced school days.

Our partnership with Traveller Families Care CLG is promoting the recruitment of Traveller foster carers so we can ensure culturally sensitive placements. With the support of a Traveller organisation, we have established a Traveller youth advisory group to ensure young Travellers now have a voice in Tusla policy.

Our student accommodation assistance fund now provides up to €6,000 per year for Traveller, Roma and care-experienced students to support access to third level education. Our employment support scheme provides financial and mentoring support for Traveller students pursuing social work and social care to increase Traveller representation in our social work and social care workforce.

To date, our multipronged approach, through strategic partnerships, targeted funding and the design and provision of more culturally sensitive services, is making meaningful strides in supporting the Traveller community. There is enhanced trust and collaboration between Tusla and Traveller organisations, increased awareness and participation in fostering among Traveller families, improved educational engagement and retention among Traveller youth and greater cultural sensitivity within Tusla through staff training and visual representation. As an agency, we are committed to further improvement in partnership with the Traveller community. We are committed to ongoing investment, listening and co-design to further build trust and deliver meaningful change, to promote the welfare and safety of children in the Traveller community, to further ensure culturally sensitive parenting support, to promote child protection and welfare mechanisms, to improve educational engagement and attainment and to ensure that if a child from the Traveller community has to come into State care, he or she can be placed with a foster family from the Traveller community. Continued collaboration with the Traveller community and Traveller-led organisations, sustained investment and interagency collaboration will be key to enable more positive outcomes for children, young people and families in the Traveller community.