'State risks legal claims over its failure of duty to children in care'

The State risks future legal claims over “its failure to comply adequately with its statutory duty” to children in care, a judge has warned, as Tusla admits it is at “crisis point”.

A letter, written in May by Judge Dermot Simms, who has since retired, is included in the latest volume of reports published on Monday by the Child Law Project. The letter was sent to four ministers, the Children’s Ombudsman, and a number of State bodies after the judge was warned in court that Tusla, the child and family agency, faces an “unprecedented crisis”.