Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to know more about the Barnahus project about which the Minister spoke because I want to be solution-focused here. The report is damning and very upsetting. We want to see how we can prevent this going forward. I am not sure if it is possible for us to get some more information, obviously, not in this answer but even outside of that as a committee. We can maybe do a visit, if that is appropriate. It would be good to see whether that is actually working and whether we can learn from that experience. I know it does not fall into the Minister's area but protected services units need many more resources, and I always try to mention that whenever I can.

The other issue I want to raise is the principal social worker. I welcome that, but is it one person? Is that one principal social worker? He or she must be totally overwhelmed trying to deal with all the cases or direct all the information. Again, that comes back to a resource issue. I would like to see if we could get more information on the pilot programme to see whether it is working. This is an area that particularly affects young girls and women, and we have already failed women so much in this country.

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