'Significant problems' in sharing of data between Gardaí and Tusla, committee told

Tusla is looking for €1.2m in next year’s budget to extend the Barnahus model, which brings together medical, child protection, therapeutic, and garda services under one roof.

It is taking seven to eight years for child sexual abuse cases to get to court because of ongoing problems in sharing data between Gardaí and Tusla, and delays around the disclosure of information in the courts, Tusla's top social worker has said.

Gerard Brophy said that although there is legislation allowing for the sharing of data between the agencies, some changes are needed to provide a proper legal basis for it.

Tusla’s chief social worker was addressing an Oireachtas children's committee hearing on the Barnahus model, which was set up as a pilot in Galway in September 2019 and brings together medical, child protection, therapeutic, and garda services under one roof.

The model, based on an Icelandic system that is being copied throughout Europe, is designed to minimise the trauma for children and their parents — and, if the child is able, increase the low level of prosecutions.

The committee also heard of continuing problems around having joint interviews of children, as recommended, by gardaí and social workers.

Delays in prosecutions, data sharing, and joint interviews were raised by the EU and the Council of Europe in a review of Ireland last year.

Des Delaney, principal officer at the Department of Children, said Ireland was “not doing too bad” in terms of the European table, was “middle ranking”, and that considerable progress had been made in the last two years.

He said an Irish appraisal of Barnahus West published in 2020 set out a road map for expanding it to the South and East.

Barnahus South, in Cork City, went live this month, with Barnahus East to follow.

Tusla is looking for €1.2m in next year’s budget to get extend Barnahus West and properly set up Barnahus South.

Mr Brophy said it was “taking seven to eight years” to get cases in Barnahus West to court, which he said was a “long, long period” for the child and their family.

He said only an estimated 2% of cases end in a prosecution.

He said there were “significant problems” with data sharing and disclosure.

Mr Brophy said that while there was a legislative basis for sharing data, there needed to be changes to the legislation to fully allow for it.

Helen Shortt of the HSE said while Barnahus South was operational, it was a “virtual service” until a new dedicated facility was built on St Mary’s Health Campus.

Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan said they received more than 91,000 referrals last year and that 5,467 (6%) related to child sexual abuse.

She said that since Barnahus West began taking referrals, in 2020, some 446 children and their families have been cared for, to date.

She said two additional therapeutic posts have been appointed, to CARI, with Mr Delaney pointing there were “significant waiting lists” for therapy.

Ms Duggan said the next phase for Barnahus South would be to extend cover to South Tipperary and Waterford, and the final phase would be getting its own premises.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said 56 interviews with children, conducted by highly trained specialist garda interviewers, were conducted in Barnahus West in 2023 — 43 involving gardaí only and 13 joint interviews with social workers.

He said training set for this September would bring a further 15 social workers on board.