Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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309. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of cases which have been received by the child and family social work department in the Tusla office in Dundalk between May 2016 and May 2017; and the length of time that passed between each case being received and contact being made with each family or person. [23682/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Information on the number of referrals received by child and family social work services is not collated by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, in the format requested by the Deputy. The latest referral figures published by Tusla are for each administrative area, and indicate that a total of 2,509 referrals had been received in the Louth/Meath area in the first three quarters of 2016.

When a referral is received, the first step is to conduct a preliminary enquiry, to substantiate the details provided by the reporter. Preliminary enquiries should normally be completed within 24 hours, and 100% were completed within this time frame in the Louth/Meath area.

For the Deputy's information, I would note that at the end of February 2017 there were 1,444 open cases in the Louth/Meath area. 274 were awaiting allocation, and 5 of these were high priority.

I only have national figures for the cases awaiting allocation, but I will ask Tusla to provide you with the waiting time for high priority cases for the Louth/Meath area.