Child protection agency Tusla is failing to tell gardai about sex abuse against kids quickly enough, a damning report has stated.
An inspection of child protection and welfare services in South West Dublin, Kildare and West Wicklow found them to be widely non-compliant with standards.
The review was carried out by health watchdog HIQA over three days in April. It looked at the managing of referrals from the moment of receipt to the point of completing a preliminary inquiry.
The report uncovered significant problems with the operation of waiting lists at the preliminary inquiry stage and noted child protection and welfare referrals were not being managed in line with Tusla standard business processes.
It also found the service area was not routinely notifying gardai of suspected crimes of wilful neglect or physical or sexual abuse in a timely manner.
In a statement yesterday, HIQA said: “Over the six weeks prior to the inspection, the management identified two significant areas of risk and put a three-month crisis management plan in place to address them.
“These significant risks were the backlog in processing and uploading new referrals onto NCCIS and the operation of waitlists at the preliminary inquiry stage.”
Tusla chief Jim Gibson said: “We accept the findings of this report. However, it is important to state Tusla has made important headway in implementing a range of measures to reform child protection and welfare services within a very challenging area.
“This report also highlighted staffing deficits, with 26 vacancies at the time of inspection.
“However, it also acknowledged that this area had developed innovative and effective measures in place to divert families to external agencies where a welfare response was more appropriate.”
