This morning, a front page story in The Irish Times pointed to serious issues in the care provided to vulnerable children in the State and the care settings in which they were placed. An internal Tusla report has found that Ideal Care Services, a company that provides care to children on behalf of the State, fabricated the pre-employment checks of staff, posing a major risk to the children and young people in its care. According to the report, the standard of checks carried out on prospective care staff were “grossly inadequate to safeguard vulnerable young people”.

This seems to be happening far too often.

The report goes on to say that individuals involved in checking employee references had fabricated these checks while personal files contained fictitious accounts of conversations with fictitious persons who were presented as referees for staff. This is shocking. Tusla inspectors found there is clear evidence that Garda vetting documents had been altered. What is happening is scandalous. These revelations are really concerning. These are vulnerable children who are placed in the care of the State. They are put into private, unregulated accommodation, because the State does not have enough accommodation itself. What engagement has the Minister for children had with Tusla regarding these revelations? What will the Minister and Government do?

I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this very serious matter. I spoke to the Minister for children this morning. He was in contact with the CEO of Tusla, Ms Kate Duggan, today. My understanding is similar to Deputy Doherty's, that Tusla has put in place a new internal compliance unit. The purpose of this unit is to enable it to examine evidence from providers of special emergency accommodation that their staff have Garda vetting and adequate qualifications. It is so important that we have that compliance structure within Tusla and that it is very much on top of this matter. That compliance unit itself detected an issue with a named company. Tusla immediately ceased using the named company. Tusla notified other State bodies that may have been aware of or using the company's services. I understand the matter has now been referred to An Garda Síochána and there is now a Garda investigation under way. Therefore, I am limited in commenting further on the matter.