Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the end of the "Prime Time Investigates" programme, the girl who was brave enough to give her name said that she did not know why she came forward. We have to show that we are responding to these issues in a timely manner. It is stated on page 7 of the report that the Minister commissioned from the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, Report of the investigation into the management of allegations of child sexual abuse against adults of concern by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) upon the direction of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and which was presented in June this year: "it is imperative that Tusla ensures its own operational arrangements and cross-agency working practices do not allow criminal investigations to impede its statutory duty to safeguard children". That was a specific imperative that Tusla look at this and not be caught by criminal investigations. Notwithstanding all of that, this man was convicted in April of this year. The NRP started looking at this case in April 2016 and here we are now in November 2018.

I cannot accept it. It looks like the Minister has had some communication if she understands that there is no problem. What mechanism is there for this independent review panel to communicate with the Minister and the Government in respect of what is happening with time and resources? The Charleton tribunal, which was on a much larger scale, could report in less time and communicate with us regularly. The commission in respect of Tuam and the various mother and baby homes is also coming back to us regularly. Where is the mechanism to explain to us the delay?

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