Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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98. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of incidents of child physical, mental or sexual abuse reported to the various agencies in each of the past three years on a monthly basis to date; the extent to which it has been found possible to achieve a satisfactory resolution from the children’s point of view; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36769/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Tusla, the Child and Family Agency holds the statutory responsibility for child welfare and protection, and is the appropriate body to receive reports of concerns relating to children at risk. Where there are reasonable grounds for concern for a child's welfare and protection, Tusla should always be informed. This has been Tusla's responsibility since its establishment in January 2014.

As part of governance arrangements, Tusla provides my Department with regular performance activity reports for monitoring purposes. These include figures showing the number of referrals which are disaggregated by welfare concerns and abuse concerns.

Not all referrals will result in a need for a social work service or in a child being received into care and approximately 50% can be expected to proceed from preliminary enquiry to the initial assessment stage. The reasons for this include the duplication of referrals, the child being known to the service and receiving attention such as Meitheal or other Family Support, or that the referral was not appropriate for the agency.

The most recent figures for welfare concerns and abuse concerns at the end of first quarter of 2015, showed 4,770 abuse concern referrals and 6,223 welfare concern referrals. Of these referrals, 56% of abuse concerns and 44% of welfare concerns went forward to the initial assessment stage. The referrals of a child abuse concern were reported as: Physical (22%), Emotional (37%), Sexual (15%) and Neglect (26%).

The data collected by Tusla on referrals is collated, validated and published quarterly in arrears. The Deputy has requested the data on a monthly basis, however as this is unavailable, the following table shows the total number of Child Protection referrals for the past three years, quarterly for 2014 and 2015, and broken down by abuse category where available:

It is difficult to say if a satisfactory resolution, from a child's point of view has been achieved in all instances, however, it is important to note that children are consulted, in as far as possible, in relation to decisions that affect them. The Deputy may be interested to note that a recent Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) inspection of the foster care services of Galway/Roscommon found that the area exceeded standards of education and of aftercare, indicating good outcomes for the children in these areas.