Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I agree with a lot of what the Deputy said in the sense of these being extraordinarily harrowing cases involving extraordinarily vulnerable children. I want to answer his question. I know all of us in this House would say that these children do matter. Their voices do matter. All of us need to be their voice. I did have a good conversation with the CEO of Tusla earlier, with whom I have regular engagements. Tusla is making real progress in terms of opening more centres and reducing the reliance on what are called special emergency arrangements, SEAs. Alongside that, and regardless of it, there are laws in this country that have to be applied too. There are also matters that I believe are matters for An Garda Síochána. There are laws if anybody has committed a criminal act against a vulnerable child in this country and those laws need to be enforced. I understand there have been five Garda referrals and six centres were closed over a period.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23