82. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will provide an update on her engagements with Tusla regarding well-being checks of closed cases; if she has received a progress report or interim report from the agency; and if she will set out the allocated additional resources she has provided Tusla to enhance its capacity to complete the work in a timely manner. [61877/25]

Sentiment score: 0.18

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.

Sentiment score: 0.08

I want to stay focused. I thank the Minister for providing some information regarding the costs. That works out at approximately €76 per child. If we are looking at 42,000 children, that is what has been allocated. Will each child be spoken to or will a member of their family be spoken to? Kate Duggan told us in committee that the first phase of this will be an automated check to see if children are enrolled in school or services. Is that it? Is that when we deem that the welfare of a child is okay? Given that 100,000 children will be referred to Tusla this year, is it not fair to say that it is a knee-jerk reaction to ask Tusla to conduct a review of 42,000 children? What happens if 1% of those children need follow-on services? Never mind 10%; if the figure is 1%, that is 4,500 children. The organisation is not in a position to offer any sort of follow-up services because it is already working with a huge number of children and young people in crisis. This week I asked Tusla to provide the details of how many children and young people are in its care that it cannot verify the age of. The organisation could not tell me what those statistics are. That is an area of Tusla that needs resourcing. My real concern, from a place of real sincerity, is that what we are calling a welfare check will not be one. We will not know about the welfare of these children and young people. We might know they are there. We might know that they exist, but that simply is not enough. If we are going to do it, we need to do it meaningfully. We need to accept it is not going to be done by March. If we do this right, chances are it would not even be done by March of the following year. If the Minister is going to do this, I implore her to do it right.

Sentiment score: 0.07