Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to stress the report is very clear that appropriate and timely action was taken where children were identified as being at risk of harm but, due to various failures in the way systems are managed, children at potential risk may have been missed, which is a very serious finding. It is also important to acknowledge that the report comments positively on the strategic direction and it comments that there is abundant evidence of considerable financial investment by Government and evidence to show better and more focused staff training has occurred. We should acknowledge that and acknowledge the front-line social workers who do such a good job in difficult circumstances.

The Deputy is right to talk about the record, and we have had many problems in setting up this agency and getting it up and running. We should not forget where we have come from. This was not a greenfield site. It was a question of taking Tusla out of the HSE and taking the Department of Children and Youth Affairs out of the Department of Health. It was not a greenfield site and it is very much an ongoing process of improvement. We are in a very different place than we were ten or 15 years ago when child protection was just an afterthought, an appendage to the Department of Health and to the HSE. We know that HSE boards, for example, regularly did not even discuss child protection at their board meetings. What have we done? We have totally changed from that old policy of the past, established a dedicated Department of Children and Youth Affairs, established Tusla as a dedicated agency, taking it out of the HSE, put children's rights in our Constitution and legislated to give effect to that.

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