Child and Family Agency
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Aidan Farrelly (SD), Kildare North

I think we all, as the Minister rightly says, share in the concerns about the tragic cases that have unfolded in this State in recent months and years. I am really concerned with the Minister's reply. How do we think it is possible for Tusla to conduct a well-being or welfare check with 42,000 children by March of next year? We have not seen the methodology for those checks. I ask the Minister to publish what those checks will look like. Tusla has more administrators than social care workers. It has more managers than family support workers. The questions that arise for me are as follows: who will be doing those checks? How many children have been participating in those checks so far? The Minister said that phase 1 is under way. How much has been allocated by the Department for Tusla to do this? In a year when it received 100,000 referrals, how is it possible within three or four months for Tusla to speak with 42,000 children? Is it not time to call this what it is? It is a proof-of-existence check; it is not a welfare check.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12