Warning of funds crisis in child protection

Groups providing family support, rape crisis, domestic violence, and marriage counselling services all face further funding cuts, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has warned.

Tusla chief executive Gordon Jeyes said that the agency was in a “constant struggle” to work within budget and more than 5,000 children, some “at significant risk”, were awaiting allocation of a social worker.

“We are managing that risk, teams are monitoring it, they’re looking at it, they’re seeing if it changes, but there’s nevertheless a significant risk because we’re not intervening as early as we could,” he said.