Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú: The work of Tusla is incredibly important. It has a huge remit. I am not sure the State has been exactly where it needs to be regarding delivery. We will talk about early intervention, some of the chaotic circumstances and making sure we catch these and that we intervene, even if that is a nuclear intervention. While we do everything to avoid that, it will always be necessary. Ms Duggan put it very clearly. It involves poverty; homelessness; domestic, sexual and gender-based violence; drugs; criminality; exploitation; and social media combined with the astronomical numbers of cases with which Tusla must deal.

With all the good work and projects that are out there, there is significant need, particularly where drugs meets poverty and chaos. It is about a number of things. It is about the facility to catch the issues. We have all heard about tragic cases such as that of Kyran Durnin but we all know of plenty of cases where sometimes we are too late to the table. Specialist public health nurses who could catch issues to make sure referrals happen early were mentioned. Sometimes as early as possible means pre-birth. The other piece involves ensuring we have the correct intervention and that it happens early enough. We have all come across cases where the intervention took too long. I get the idea of keeping families together but children have been left in really precarious circumstances. In the past week or two, I have dealt with constituents who spoke about drug-dealing party houses. There is a child protection issue regarding children being brought up there - if that is even the correct term. I have a feeling that we fail to take enough action.

There is no way that Tusla has the facilities for foster care to be able to deal with the need that is there. Could Ms Duggan talk about the need, the capacity Tusla requires and any issues it has in dealing with other Government agencies because, obviously, it does not all fall solidly on Tusla?

[Click here for the full debate]