Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am concerned about the amount of time involved. In both my written response to the Deputy and my oral response today, I am trying to make it perfectly clear that the statutory responsibility of Tusla is for the care and protection of children who may require it. That does not necessarily mean if they are with their parents in emergency accommodation. The agency's statutory responsibility does not extend to that. At the same time, I agree that it is very important to ensure that they are in emergency accommodation for as little time as possible. In the overall Rebuilding Ireland - an Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness response, my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, is trying to ensure that this timeframe reduces. However, while they are in that accommodation Tusla took on the responsibility of working with the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to develop safety and protection policies to be provided for children in emergency accommodation. That has been developed in draft form and it will be rolled out in the new year.

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