A Dublin District Court judge has condemned Tusla’s handling of its duty and obligation towards children in its care as “shocking and appalling.”
In a judgement delivered this week, Judge Conor Fottrell said the Irish State’s Child and Family Agency had failed to comply with court orders over the last 15 years, affecting around 250 children under care orders.
“This has been shocking and appalling behaviour by the Agency and how it saw its duty and obligation to the courts and, more importantly, to children in its care,” Fottrell said.
The judge’s remarks followed an investigation into Tusla’s failure to assign social workers to children in care, despite court directions for the agency to do so.
The court became aware of the issue in January 2024 during a welfare review for a child under a care order. When the court requested a list of cases without allocated social workers, it was revealed that 160 children had been left without a social worker, some since 2022. In June 2024, a further 85 cases were identified.
Fottrell said that Tusla’s failure to comply with court directions represented “a failure of management at local, regional and national level which raises serious concerns on issues of governance, oversight and communication within the Agency.”
Tusla management informed the court that the situation arose due to a national shortage of social workers and a growing number of referrals. The agency acknowledged that it had been aware of the problem since November 2022 but had not informed the court or complied with directions to re-enter cases when children became unallocated for more than 4 to 6 weeks.
The court issued new directions in July 2024, ordering Tusla to review all cases where children under care orders were without a social worker and to amend care plans to reflect when cases were unallocated. Tusla sought to have this requirement set aside in September 2024, but the court refused.
In March 2025, Tusla informed the court that it had reviewed 617 cases and identified a further 666 instances of non-compliance with court directions. The court was told that an additional 554 cases remained under review.
“This persistent non-compliance with court orders by the Agency is a very concerning and serious matter,” Fottrell said.
“It cannot continue and will not be tolerated by this Court.”