Nearly 4,000 cases of suspected child abuse referred to gardaí by Tusla

There have been nearly 4,000 cases of suspected child abuse reported to An Garda Síochána by Tusla, the child and family agency, in the first half of this year, new figures show.

The State child protection agency has been under major strain recently following a significant rise in the number of reports of alleged child abuse or neglect made to the agency since the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 38,000 referrals were made to Tusla about children in the first five months of this year, which included allegations of abuse, neglect or welfare concerns.

Where Tusla receive a report and suspect a child has been subjected to physical or sexual abuse following an assessment, they are required to refer the case to the Garda.

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New figures show social workers made 3,883 reports of suspected child abuse to the Garda up to the end of June this year.

In other cases, gardaí responding to incidents or investigating alleged abuse will make referrals to Tusla.

Reports of suspected abuse from Tusla the Garda hit a high of 747 during a single month in March this year.

The latest figures, seen by The Irish Times, were release to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín in response to a parliamentary question.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Tóibín said the number of reports of suspected abuse was “heartbreaking”.

“If we take the month of March as an example it seems roughly 24 reports of suspected child abuse were being made by Tusla to Gardaí each day,” he said.

“Like any other system I imagine if Tusla is under extreme pressure then the likelihood of children falling through the cracks would be increasing.”

In a statement, Tusla said the number of notifications of abuse Tusla sent to the Garda “reflect the very serious concerns for very many children in Irish families today”.

A spokeswoman for Tusla said a “dedicated information sharing platform” had been set up between Tusla and the Garda this year, to record the number of reports of suspected abuse nationally.

“Before the introduction of the digital platform, this information was recorded and managed locally,” she said.

The spokeswoman said that as a result, comparative figures of the number of reports of suspected abuse made in 2022 were not available.

[ How has Tusla found itself at crisis point in its care of vulnerable children? ]

Kate Duggan, the interim chief executive of Tusla, earlier this year said the agency was at a “crisis” point, given the increasing number of reports of concern about children, other demands on its services, and a shortage of social workers.

Mr Tóibín said the upcoming budget should address the shortage of social workers and have a focus on improving services for children in State care.