James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would not disagree with anything the Deputy has said. This problem has been with us for decades and only a few years ago the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the then Minister were not even able to tell us how many children were dying in care. We have moved a long way towards transparency. The audit I asked Tusla to do was particularly important because it gave us an accurate picture of the scale of the problem and the challenge. It has come up with a three-year plan to address it and we have given it the money for the first year to do that. I have no doubt that successive Governments or Ministers will continue that because we need to address this problem. It will be a challenge for Tusla, which faces a recruitment challenge. I encourage people who have an interest in this area to go back to college and study to be social workers because there is a huge demand for them and we have made resources available to employ them.

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