Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for standing in for the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. She could equally be standing in for the Minister for Justice because this issue needs to be addressed from both sides. Unfortunately, when submitting the Topical Issue, I could only tick one box. We have seen in recent days the release of a report by the National Women's Council of Ireland looking at gender-based violence and domestic violence and how we are continuing to let down victims. We saw a report in last week's Irish Examiner on how the State is continuing to let down victims of child sexual abuse and we have seen a report in recent weeks by Geoffrey Shannon o St. John Ambulance that showed that victims of child sexual abuse were repeatedly let down. In the past, we have seen report after report highlighting the need to improve joint working and inter-agency working and how victims, including children, are slipping through the gaps and services are pulling in opposite directions and not giving the support victims need.

I will be honest. There have been some improvements. We saw liaison management teams put in place in many areas inside Tusla. The divisional protective service units in An Garda Síochána constitute an excellent innovation that provides an excellent service and should be continued and supported. They are really improving how the State responds to these things. Equally, there are many continuing failures. From speaking to front-line social workers, I learned that the specialist portal that is exclusively for An Garda Síochána to report concerns to Tusla is rarely used or inconsistently used depending on the area. Specialist interviewers within Tusla, who are social workers trained to conduct forensic interviews carried out jointly with gardaí that can then be used as evidence through a video system, are not being used. We are spending money on training these people but are not using them and many of them are leaving Tusla. There is inconsistency around the country in areas of practice. A joint protocol of working between An Garda Síochána and Tusla calls for annual reviews. This is not happening.

There is a way forward and a way to get them working together, namely, an element of colocation. Seconding duty social workers to the divisional protective service units means they automatically work together from the beginning. We have seen from the section 12 audit conducted in Tusla that there can be strong working relationships between gardaí and social workers that improve outcomes for people receiving support from Tusla but, again, these are ad hocand inconsistent. These come up because people are working together but if social workers and gardaí are transferred, the structural elements are not there to ensure inter-agency work. This is why we need colocation and the secondment of duty social workers to the divisional protective service units so that they can work together and sit at the same desk in the same office in the same portacabin. This will automatically improve and create better structures. I suspect the Minister of State will raise Barnahus as a solution. Unfortunately, as it is envisaged, Barnahus will not be the solution. I will talk more about that in my further response.

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