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

As the Deputy is aware, responsibility for the delivery of child protection and welfare services is a matter for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Children First Act 2015 provides for a number of key child protection measures, including raising awareness of child abuse and neglect, providing for mandated reporting of child protection concerns and improving child protection arrangements in organisations providing services to children. Under the Act, mandated persons are required to report child protection concerns at or above a defined threshold to Tusla. Mandated persons are people who have contact with children or families or both and who, because of their qualifications, training or employment role or both, are in a key position to help protect children from harm. Organisations classed as providers of relevant services under the Act are required to undertake a risk assessment and develop a child safeguarding statement setting out the procedures in place to manage any risk identified.

The Children First Act operates side by side with the non-statutory obligations provided for in Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children. The guidance sets out how reports about reasonable concerns of child abuse or neglect should be made by the general public and professionals to Tusla and what organisations need to do to keep children safe. If a child appears to be at risk of harm or neglect, the concerns should be reported to Tusla. Anyone can report a concern about a child to Tusla, and information on how to do so is available on the Tusla website. If a child is at immediate risk or in danger, An Garda Síochána should be alerted without delay.

Tusla acts urgently on notification of an immediate risk to a child. Children who are in a situation of immediate risk may initially be dealt with by An Garda Síochána or by Tusla but, in the main, both agencies work together in such cases. Tusla has an out-of-hours emergency number for An Garda Síochána, which provides advice based on the circumstances and can also identify whether a child of concern is listed on the child protection notification system, CPNS, a Tusla-owned secure database that lists children who are considered to be at ongoing risk of significant harm.

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