Impact of cyberattack 'worse than Covid' on child protection cases

Initial childcare proceedings, and full care orders, are most impacted as a result of the cyberattack on the HSE.

The Child and Family Agency has said children are still being admitted to care in the normal way but admitted that the cyberattack has caused other difficulties in childcare proceedings.

Tusla operates with much of the same IT infrastructure as the HSE and has had its systems crippled as a result of the ransomware attack that was launched last month.

Solicitor Gareth Noble of firm KOD Lyons tweeted that the impact of the cyberattack was "worse than Covid" when it came to child law proceedings.

Mr Noble said social workers and others had been working extremely hard to mitigate the effects of the ransomware attacks, but that it had placed additional work pressures on them, particularly when it came to providing relevant records and reports that were not now accessible.

Handwritten reports

He said that initial childcare proceedings, and full care orders, were most impacted as a result of the cyberattack.

"Very few full care orders are going ahead," he said. "They cannot produce the reports before the courts."

Mr Noble said that these applications were evidence-based but that social workers and others were now "locked out" of their email and had limited access.

It meant some social workers having to handwrite reports for the court and social workers were now required in court, in many cases, to give oral evidence whereas during the earlier stages of the pandemic their attendance was not required.

"During Covid you could rely on social work reports and there was agreement that they did not have to come to court," he said. "Now they all have to come to court."

Paper system

The Chair of the Irish Association of Social Workers, Aine McGuirk, had already warned that social workers faced going back to a paper system until such time as they could access the online systems compromised by the cyberattack.

Last week Tusla CEO Bernard Gloster said the recovery from the cyberattack would be "costly in many ways". However, the Child and Family Agency has said there is no evidence of any Tusla data appearing on the dark web.

In a statement, the Child and Family Agency said: “Following the cyber attack on HSE systems, Tusla’s Head of Legal Services engaged with all member firms and with the Office of the Court Office to advise of the attack and the subsequent impact on services, specifically, our inability to access file information/documentation.

"During this period, Social Work staff have provided oral evidence or have completed new written reports for Courts as required.

"To date, there has been no indication of any significant issues and children have continued to be admitted into care since 14th May 2021 as required and Interim Care Orders (ICOs) have continued to be reviewed."

A Tusla spokeperson said the issues caused by the cyberattack came after the Agency was trying to overcome other, longstanding issues that arose as a result of the pandemic.

Separately, the backlog from Covid on the Court system has caused ongoing delays in getting Court dates for applications and this continues to present challenges," the spokesperson said.