---

‘Appalling’ Tusla failure of children in care – judge

District Court Judge Conor Fottrell (small picture) has flagged serious concerns about Tusla’s performance and the consequences for children in care.

He described the agency’s failure to allocate social workers to 250 children as "shocking and appalling”, highlighting severe shortcomings in Tusla governance, oversight, and communication (14 March).

In court, the judge said that orders for the care of these children were not complied with and that senior management in Tusla was aware of the issue for a significant period of time but failed to take appropriate action.

The judgment states that immediately a case became unallocated, each child should have been re-entered in compliance with each court order.

No compliance effort

"However, the agency made absolutely no effort to demonstrate compliance with any of these orders and to inform the court that children in care were without an allocated social worker”, it continues.

"The sheer number of children involved across social work departments highlights multiple failures within the agency at all levels”, it adds.

Tusla chief Kate Duggan acknowledged the failure but said for operational reasons, the matter was not escalated to the executive management team.

She later apologised, stating that the agency should have re-entered the cases and ensured that the children were allocated social workers as required by court orders.

Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) chair Vivian Guerin said that it was alarming that children were left without social workers despite the legal requirements.

He said that the longstanding shortage of social workers in the country, was caused by government neglect and lack of strategic planning.