Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Poor record-keeping and bad management might be fine in a GAA club or similar organisation but Tusla is a national organisation with incredible powers. It is devastating if those powers are mishandled, as in the case of the letter. After all that occurred, there were no positive replies and no rush to sort this out and make it better. The culture is the issue. Many of the officials were good officials - do not get me wrong - but so many of them were hived off from the HSE to set up Tusla. When the legislation was passed here, it was regarded as a great day and the job was regarded as done. The officials were then left to their own devices, with no proper management structures in place. As stated, there were poor management structures and poor record-keeping practices.

How are things changing? What is happening today to reassure us there is change? We really need reassurance that this can never happen again because, as I stated, Tusla is not a GAA club or small company that gets fined by the Revenue Commissioners for poor record-keeping; it is a national organisation with incredible powers.

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