452. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department or Tusla maintains any national benchmarks, targets, or internal performance indicators in respect of time-to-permanency for children in care; if not, the rationale for the absence of such targets; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33786/26]
Topics / Child Protection
A subject heading for parliamentary questionsChild Protection
217 questions from 38 TDs, between 5 February 2025 and 16 September 2026.
217
questions
212 written, 5 oral
38
TDs have asked
9
parties and groups
Independents counted together
10
departments asked
Questions per month
The record holds no questions for August, when the Dáil does not sit.
Jan 2025Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions |
|---|---|
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 4 |
| March 2025 | 2 |
| April 2025 | 5 |
| May 2025 | 4 |
| June 2025 | 0 |
| July 2025 | 6 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 23 |
| October 2025 | 8 |
| November 2025 | 29 |
| December 2025 | 29 |
| January 2026 | 1 |
| February 2026 | 33 |
| March 2026 | 7 |
| April 2026 | 0 |
| May 2026 | 41 |
| June 2026 | 9 |
| July 2026 | 12 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 4 |
| October 2026 | 0 |
Who asks, by party
The party each TD belonged to on the day, in alphabetical order. Parties differ a lot in size, and members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them, so this shows who raised it, not how much a party cares about it.
The TDs who asked most
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them. Each question counts once.
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117
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14
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10
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8
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7
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6
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4
Asked of
Debated under the same heading
Debates whose official heading is exactly these words.
The questions
453. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether any internal analysis, audit, or review has been undertaken in the past five years to assess delays in permanency planning for children in State care; if so, to provide details and findings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33787/26]
454. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether Ireland benchmarks its performance in achieving permanency outcomes for children in care against other EU or comparable jurisdictions; and if so, to provide details of such comparisons; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33788/26]
455. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the number of children who have remained in State care for more than five years without achieving reunification, adoption, or guardianship; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33789/26]
456. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether any statutory or policy-based maximum timeframe exists for achieving permanency for children in State care; if not, whether consideration has been given to introducing such a framework; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33790/26]
457. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the governance and oversight arrangements in place to monitor delays in permanency outcomes for children in State care, including any reporting obligations to her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33791/26]
744. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the total number of emergency child removals carried out under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991 in each of the past five years, in tabular form, broken down by region and by the legal basis for removal. [32382/26]
745. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether Tusla maintains a centralised dataset capturing emergency child removals under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991; if so, the variables recorded within that dataset; and if she will provide details. [32383/26]
746. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether any trend analysis has been conducted by Tusla or her Department in respect of emergency child removals under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991; and if so, the findings of such analysis. [32384/26]
747. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether her Department has assessed regional variation in the use of emergency child removal powers under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991; and if so, the outcome of that assessment. [32385/26]
748. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether consideration has been given to classifying emergency child removal decisions under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991 as a systemic or governance risk within Tusla's corporate risk framework; and if so, the outcome of that consideration. [32386/26]
749. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the criteria used by Tusla to determine when patterns in frontline child protection interventions escalate to a strategic or corporate risk requiring inclusion on the National Corporate Risk Register. [32387/26]
750. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality how her Department satisfies itself that emergency child removal powers under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991 are applied consistently nationwide in the absence of formal trend analysis reporting from Tusla. [32388/26]
751. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the reporting mechanisms in place between Tusla and her Department in respect of emergency child removals under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991; and the frequency and format of such reporting [32389/26]
752. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether any external review, audit or inspection has been undertaken in the past five years examining the use of emergency child removal powers under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991; and if so, the findings. [32390/26]
753. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether she has requested or plans to request the development of national reporting or oversight mechanisms relating to emergency child removals under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991; and if not, the reason. [32391/26]
816. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to review the case of a child (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21776/26]
1250. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to provide clarity on the legislative or regulatory frameworks that exist to address the use of online gaming platforms such as (details supplied) as vectors for child exploitation in Ireland; the oversight mechanisms which exist for such platforms operating in Ireland where children may be at risk; and if he will make a statement on …
1262. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if he will review correspondence (details supplied); if he will address the concerns raised therein; if he will respond to the specific questions outlined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18552/26]
1494. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality in the context of the protection of school children, is she aware of the fact that the previous Minister of Housing, Local Government and Heritage/National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), upon the advice of his then Department/NPWS, withdrew the proactive, elective Derogation Regulation, ; her views on whether the derogation must…
1557. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 991 of 17 February 2026, to consider the implementation of real-time disclosure of safeguarding concerns after garda vetting is given; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19542/26]
2171. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Health for an update on a matter regarding a CAMHS referral for a child (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20472/26]
498. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality considering the structural reform in Tusla underway the number of children in care that do not currently have an allocated professionally qualified social worker in each geographical area for which figures are compiled, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18218/26]
458. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether emergency child removal decisions under sections 12 and 13 of the Child Care Act 1991 are explicitly identified within Tusla’s corporate risk register as a governance or systemic risk category; whether the Tusla board reports trend analysis on such removals to her Department; and if she will outline the reporting mechanism involv…
459. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality whether Tusla’s internal audit function, or any external audit process since 2018, has examined evidential thresholds, proportionality standards, or quality assurance mechanisms in relation to section 13 emergency care order applications; and whether any reports or recommendations were made available to her Department [15824/26]