Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Tusla identified three core priorities during the lockdown, domestic violence, children in residential care and their ongoing interaction with their parents and children in foster care as well. It focused all its resources in those particular areas. We have had the opportunity to discuss the specific supports provided for domestic violence services to ensure that they had additional staff, that where a staff member was sick due to Covid or for any other reason, their position was not idle, that PPE was provided and that ICT support was provided so these services could make the movement online.

As regards, social workers, again, Tusla very quickly moved to online working. It was very innovative. Meetings between parents and children took place in car parks, with two cars parked close to each other, socially distant, to allow that really important contact between a parent and a child in care to be maintained, while at the same time adhering to public health requirements regarding social distancing.

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