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

I thank the Deputy. It is a very important issue, one in which the Deputy has taken a deep and genuine interest.

It was not a question that I anticipated would come up today so unfortunately I do not have an up-to-date note on this particular matter and I have not had a chance to speak to the Minister for Children and Family Affairs, Deputy Zappone, about it. I know there is absolutely no requirement for Deputies to give us any advance notice of the questions that are raised, but we do get it on occasion and it does at least allow me to get an up-to-date note.

I will certainly check with the Minister, Deputy Zappone, as to the reasons why the report cannot be published. I understand that sometimes reports cannot be published for good reasons. This may be because there is a criminal investigation or trial under way, and no one wants to do anything that might cause a criminal trial to collapse or a prosecution to fail as a result of information being put in the public domain that a defendant could use to get acquitted or bring a trial down. Also, sometimes people can take a case against a report being published and seek injunctive relief. Often there are reasons why reports cannot be published and they can be good ones. It is not necessarily because someone does not want them to be published.

I am told that on Monday last Tusla published its 2017 annual report of the national review panel. It also published five individual case reviews relating to children and young people who, sadly, died in care or in aftercare or who were known to the child protection services. Each of those represents a tragedy for the children and young people involved as well as for their families and those who cared for them. The annual report from 2017 does not cover the cases Deputy Connolly is raising today.

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