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

I thank Deputy Tully for raising that important issue. She is absolutely right. The situation and the conditions that this child and her family found themselves in are unacceptable and it is important that these are published and publicised by the children's law reporting project. Since then, Tusla and the HSE have agreed a protocol for addressing the needs of children who are in care but who also have a disability. The two agencies were not co-operating well in these areas but a protocol is now in place that also has financing behind it to make sure appropriate pathways of care can be identified for those children. Now that the disability services within the HSE also report directly to my Department, as does Tusla, we have a more joined-up approach in our response to these particularly vulnerable children.

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