Commitments to improve child welfare services are outlined on page 75 of the programme for Government. This morning the organisation One in Four stated it was extremely worried that dangerous offenders might be continuing to abuse children, even though they had been brought to the attention of Tusla. When I raised this matter with the Taoiseach recently, I told him that Tusla had received a truly shocking 70,000 referrals for abuse between 2013 and 2016. Will the Taoiseach, please, ask the Minister responsible to ensure dangerous offenders will be targeted by Tusla and that vulnerable children will have every resource necessary made available to them?

I will. The Deputy will be aware that Tusla was established in 2014 as a dedicated child protection agency. Its budget for this year is €713 million, a 5% increase on its budget for last year. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, is absolutely committed to ensuring and improving child protection in Ireland. The One in Four report states Tusla was unable to proceed with 79 of 91 cases because the alleged victim had declined to meet the Tusla social worker. Legally and in keeping with fair procedures Tusla is obliged to meet the victim directly to validate his or her statement before it can approach the alleged abuser. One in Four reported that 12 of its clients had made a statement to a Tusla social worker. In three of these cases Tusla was assessing whether the alleged abuser posed a risk to children. One case was deemed to be founded; five cases were deemed to be unfounded, while the three remaining cases were closed without an assessment of risk because the person concerned could not be located, perhaps because he or she had left the country or had died. It is important to point out that it is the role of the Garda to investigate historical allegations of crime. Tusla's role is to assess whether there is a current risk to any child. That is what it does.