Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I believe the return of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, was welcome and brought a lot of clarity. It is refreshing and I compliment her on it. I accept the answers to my questions from the Ministers.

Deputy Zappone used words like "vile" and "graphic" and said false information was put out there by Tusla. Can the Taoiseach and Ministers say whether they have faith in Tusla and in its CEO? Do they have full confidence in Tusla? I certainly do not. I have raised many issues in this House in this regard and I opposed the children's referendum. People get in touch with me on a weekly basis about horrific cases and the answer I always get is that Tusla will investigate this matter itself. It is farcical in the extreme for a relatively new organisation to investigate itself. I was told there was a grandparent rule meaning a child was not allowed to be cared for by grandparents. That has been changed now but this rule was made up by the agency itself - it was not in the Act. Tusla has tried to account for this as a copy and paste mistake but it is far from it. There are many, many mistakes and they are being covered up.

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