Child Protection
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

I acknowledge that those in Tusla, the Department and all the agencies who work with children are absolutely central to protecting vulnerable children and are doing excellent work individually. However, the purpose of the duty to co-operate is that collectively there will be the sharing of information the Deputy referenced, everybody will be around the one table as it were and there will be a strong sense of partnership across State agencies to ensure that everyone is fully engaged with and aware of the role they play in protecting children from harm.
The Deputy specifically referenced North-South co-operation. Although it is a matter for the Department of Education and Youth, I am aware of very extensive North-South engagement on that. It is an issue I have discussed with the North's Minister for Education, Paul Givan, on a number of occasions and the work there is very advanced. All the recommendations that have been outlined have been shared with each of the Departments and agencies concerned. It is a matter of priority for them to be put in place. As I said, the work with Tusla is under way. A considerable uplift in the funding of €1.37 billion has been provided for Tusla in the budget this year, and significant work is under way on recruitment of staff.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18