Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Like others, my thoughts are with the young girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in Saggart last night and her family. While there are issues regarding security around IPAS centres and asylum policy in general - issues I will continue to follow up on - we must, of course, let the gardaí take their investigation through the process. However, there are also questions for Tusla.

I note the Taoiseach stated that the national review panel would investigate the circumstances surrounding the child absconding under Tusla care before the attack. However, the special rapporteur on child protection recently suggested that this panel was not operationally independent of Tusla, had no legislative authority to produce reports and lacked transparency. When will it be put on a statutory footing so it can be empowered to carry out truly independent reports? Too many children are coming to harm under Tusla's care, and last year, Tusla referred 19 deaths of children to the review panel.

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