Tusla, the child and family agency, has come under fire after a judge found it had failed to comply with hundreds of court orders related to vulnerable children in its care.
An inquiry, detailed in the Irish Independent, and led by Judge Conor Fottrell uncovered widespread failings, with around 250 children affected by Tusla’s lack of action. Just before delivering his findings, the judge was informed of an additional 666 cases where the agency had not complied with court directions.
Judge Fottrell did not hold back in his criticism, describing Tusla’s behaviour as “shocking and appalling.” He said the sheer number of affected children pointed to “multiple failures” at all levels of the organisation, raising serious concerns about governance, oversight, and communication.
One of the key court orders Tusla failed to follow required it to return cases to the district court if a child in its care had not been assigned a social worker within four weeks. This has been a standard requirement in care orders for the past 15 years, yet the agency repeatedly failed to act.
During the inquiry, Tusla apologised to the court. It said it was struggling to assign social workers to every child due to a national shortage of staff and a growing number of referrals.
