Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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146. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the degree to which he has been alerted to issues affecting children during the course of the Covid-19 crisis with particular reference to the need to prevent abuse and neglect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6261/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Thank you deputy for your question. You raise a most serious issue.

I can advise the Deputy that Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has continued to provide essential frontline services to children and families throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.  Tusla’s work has focused on ensuring continuity of critical supports and services to vulnerable families  whilst  balancing this need with  public health advice to keep children, families and frontline staff as safe as possible during the pandemic.

Tusla determined that the three priority service areas within the organisation were:

- Child Protection (including Out of Hours Social Work Services)

- Children in Care (including parental access and court hearings)

- Domestic and Sexual Gender Based Violence services.

When Covid-19 restrictions were first introduced, with schools closing in March 2020, referrals decreased  to child protection and welfare services. The decrease was  from an average of 1,505 per week, to 968 (36% decrease) per week for the initial four week period. Following a local and national media campaign referrals increased, to over 1,300 referrals per week. All indications are that year on year comparisons will show an increase in referrals received in 2020. The most recent monthly referral data shows to the end of October 2020 Tusla had received 52,082 referrals, over the same period in 2019 Tusla received 49,963 referrals already an increase of 4%.   

In June 2020, my Department developed an information and media campaign entitled SupportingChildren.gov.ie. For the first time this brought together information on all the services, structures and supports which are in place for vulnerable children, young people and their families during the Covid pandemic. Critically this also included the range of step-up actions and innovations that were also being advanced to support these groups. I can inform you that this initiative is about to begin again. It is important that this vulnerable cohort of children and their families know that support continues to be available during these challenging times.  

My Department established a Covid response group. Under the umbrella of this team the various facets of my Department keep me informed as to issues affecting children and young people and the impact of Covid-19. The group collates information on the impact of Covid on a variety of services including Tusla Children Residential services, the Oberstown Campus, Youth services, Domestic Sexual & Gender Based Violence services, International Protection Accommodation Service, Traveller and Roma services. They also contribute to and monitor the responses put in place to mitigate issues that arise. 

You will be aware of the heightened concern for the safety of partners and children where there is domestic violence.  The Department of Justice is coordinating a Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (DSGBV) group across  Departments and agencies to ensure a coordinated focussed approach to this worrying problem. Under the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency has statutory responsibility for the care and protection of victims of DSGBVIn Budget 2021, myDepartment negotiated an additional €30m for Tusla, specifically allocated for DSGBV services. This includes core funding of €28m and an additional €2m to assist DSGBV organisations in offsetting the effects of COVID-19 on day-to-day services.

 The Programme for Government sets out a number of commitments regarding DSGBV, including an audit on segmentation of DSGBV responsibilities across government departments and agencies, which will inform future investments in this area. Tusla is also undertaking a review of emergency accommodation nationwide. This will assess the current and requisite distribution of safe emergency accommodation. Substantial progress has been made on a number of processes which contribute to the review, including a literature review, consultations with stakeholders, geographical and census data analysis, consultation with service users and policy analysis. The review's findings and the recommendations of the Monitoring Committee of the Second National Strategy on DSGBV will inform Tusla's future decisions on priority areas for investment and development of services. Tusla has advised me that the report will be published this April.

 It is of the utmost importance that the needs of those who experience domestic violence are met in the most appropriate way possible, including children.

In addition through correspondences and parliamentary queries submitted to my Department, issues affecting children and opportunities to prevent abuse and neglect are brought to the fore. During a crisis such as we face now, if anyone has a concern for the safety and welfare of a child or young person they should bring it to the attention of the appropriate authorities without delay.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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147. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the extent of his Department’s interaction with various youth organisations throughout the country with particular reference to the need to offer support to youth organisations and the protection of the vulnerable in the context of the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6262/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My officials and I have a very good working relationship with the youth sector and I will be continuing this engagement as we seek to support young people through this very challenging period.  Of particular relevance in the context of the Deputy's query is the very successful working group convened by my officials to work with youth sector representatives in the context of the response to the Covid pandemic.

In recognition of the vital role played by youth work in providing support to young people, funding levels have increased throughout the current challenging period. This has enabled the youth sector to continue to provide supports to young people, particularly to marginalised, disadvantaged and vulnerable young people. 

Early in my tenure, I was able to provide an additional small grant to support local funded organisations, Youth Information Centres and youth clubs to defray some of the Covid-19 costs. Since then, I have also secured an additional €5 million investment in youth services for 2021. I see this funding as supporting the frontline services as they seek to innovate to continue to provide critical services to vulnerable young people.

At a broader level, my Department is committed to leading a discussion with relevant Departments and agencies to ensure that mental health services, educational institutions, youth services and sports clubs work together, so that each is aware of the challenges young people have been facing and can help ease them back into everyday life and support their resilience.