Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1178. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of child protection and welfare referrals made to Tusla that await screening. [13044/19]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In the nine month period from January 2018 -September 2018 Tusla received 41,313 referrals to child protection and welfare services. An initial screening identified that 98%, (40,584) referrals were appropriate for Tusla. (Please note that this data should be considered provisional as validation is ongoing).

Tusla child protection duty social work teams screen all referrals within 24 hours to determine whether a referral meets the eligibility criteria. There are no waiting lists for screening of referrals. All urgent cases are assigned immediately to a social worker.

At the end of December 2018, the latest date for which this data is available, the number of cases open to Tusla Child Welfare and Protection services was 26,433, of which 6,432 (24%) were awaiting the allocation of a social worker