Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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216. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the availability of adequate resources to respond to and provide for the needs of children at risk; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3660/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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223. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if the number of children deemed to be at risk for whatever reason continues to be monitored; if adequate resources by way of follow-up and early response are in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3667/16]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 216 and 223 together.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that significant extra resources have been allocated to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency for 2016. The overall funding allocation for Tusla in 2016 is €676 million, representing an increase of €38 million over the 2015 allocation. This includes €662.4 million in current expenditure and €13.6 million in capital expenditure.

The overall level of funding that I have provided significantly strengthens Tusla's base funding level and provides the Agency with the necessary investment to increase staffing levels to meet identified risks and anticipated demand. The additional resources are intended to alleviate service pressures in child welfare and protection services, in particular pressures being faced in the areas of unallocated cases, private residential and foster care and domestic, sexual and gender based violence services.

I wish to assure the Deputy that Tusla deals immediately with emergency cases, including for instance, if a child has been abandoned or is in immediate physical danger or at immediate risk of sexual abuse. Social work duty teams keep high priority cases under review by regularly checking to ascertain risk to the child, and where necessary will reprioritise the case.

My Department has a range of systems in place to ensure it is informed of risk to children and families. Tusla, within its national office, has a dedicated Quality Assurance Team. This team produces monthly, quarterly and annual reports in respect of Tusla's functions, and includes detailed reporting on key performance indicators. These reports give a good indication of the number of children and families in receipt of or requiring intervention. The reports also provide statistical evidence of improvements to child welfare and protection services and highlights challenges and areas where further improvement is required. The reports show the number of child welfare and protection referrals in the period, the numbers that have been screened and assessed and those cases that are awaiting an allocated social worker.

Tusla also provides me with information on children in care, their placement type, care status and allocation of social workers. Within my Department there is a Unit which scrutinises these reports and briefs me and senior officials on issues of note. This Unit also reviews and analyses HIQA and Tusla inspection reports of children's residential centres, special care centres, fostering and child protection services. The overview from these reports provides me with a level of assurance on the overall capacity of Tusla to identify and provide services to families and children at risk. Additional information is gleaned from the National Review Panel reports on individual cases, and investigations conducted by the Omudsman for Children.

Additionally, my officials frequently meet with Tusla to review the overall level of service provision, including areas in need of improvement. I also meet with Tusla on a quarterly basis in this regard. There are protocols in place for the Agency to inform my Department of specific issues where risks are identified and to ensure that robust management responses are put in place.

The Government, since its establishment, has attached particular priority to supporting vulnerable children and families and the significant increase in funding being made available to Tusla this year represents further evidence of our delivery on this ambition.