Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I believe she will be providing me with the figures. I realise providing figures in tabular form does not always work well when taking oral questions.

I am also hearing from school leaders that there has been a shift in protocol in terms of the expectations and demands of schools before Tusla educational welfare officers are engaged. From some of my engagement with school leaders, I have learned this puts an additional burden on schools that they do not have the capacity for. It is not an improvement on the previous experience, whereby they could engage earlier. Could the Minister look into that? I am sure she has heard about it.

It may be a matter of tweaking the protocol and ensuring there is better engagement. Perhaps when some of these posts are filled, it might fill some of the gap. We need to ensure that the system works well and there is a fair level of responsibility between Tusla and the individual schools.

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