Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tusla has implemented its child-exploitation procedure in 2021 in partnership with An Garda Síochána which provides Tusla staff and carers with information on how to recognise indicators of child sexual exploitation, how to make appropriate referrals and how to respond to cases where children may be at risk of sexual exploitation. Tusla also developed a training e-learning module to support its staff to implement this procedure which almost 1,100 Tusla staff have completed. It has established an anti-trafficking working group in readiness for the Department of Justice national action plan for human trafficking which includes the area of child sexual exploitation. We have also recently jointly established with Tusla a working group to look at institutional and organisational abuse. This work is ongoing including reviewing criteria for the definition of such abuse and also reviewing further supports and guidance for staff around any potential indicators of child sexual exploitation of in state care. A lot of work has been done and there will now be a focus on the outcome of this study.

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