I want to raise an issue that was highlighted in news reports last week resulting from a report by the Child Law Project and Dr. Niall Muldoon, who is Ombudsman for Children. It highlighted the case of a teenage girl with a disability who was held in a hospital room off the emergency department for two months in 2021 because Tusla - the Child and Family Agency and HSE disability services could not work together to ensure that the proper supports were put in place to support this child and her family. The young girl was living in a dark room. She was not outside for two months. She had no access to education, no physical activity for the two months and even limited access to television or Wi-Fi for a period. It is not an isolated incident. Unfortunately, there are many families facing this stark choice and who feel they have no option because they do not receive the supports they require from the disability services in the community. What steps has the Government taken to ensure co-operation among State agencies such as Tusla and the disability services for families with children with disability to ensure the children are put first?

I thank Deputy Tully for raising that important issue. She is absolutely right. The situation and the conditions that this child and her family found themselves in are unacceptable and it is important that these are published and publicised by the children's law reporting project. Since then, Tusla and the HSE have agreed a protocol for addressing the needs of children who are in care but who also have a disability. The two agencies were not co-operating well in these areas but a protocol is now in place that also has financing behind it to make sure appropriate pathways of care can be identified for those children. Now that the disability services within the HSE also report directly to my Department, as does Tusla, we have a more joined-up approach in our response to these particularly vulnerable children.