Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 May 2021
35. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the actions his Department has taken in view of the serious cyber-attack on the HSE to negate the impact on Tusla’s significant child protection casework and child protection and welfare functions. [28593/21]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that last Friday, I arranged a briefing for relevant spokespersons from political parties with the CEO of Tusla where a full overview of the known issues, impact on operations, and a range of mitigating actions were outlined. I understand that the CEO provided a briefing on the 18th May to the Deputy as Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration and provided the full committee with a written update on the 21st. As Minister with responsibility for Tusla, I sit on the ministerial group dealing with the Cyber-attack and have been in contact with CEO on a daily basis.
As an independent agency, Tusla has responsibility for its own ICT function and has engaged with the HSE, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Gardaí in relation to this incident. Myself and my officals have been in daily contact with Tusla and our partners in government since being alerted to the attack on the 14th May, to ensure risks can be mitigated as much as possible and frontline services can be maintained.
Tusla is actively engaged with An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service, and family support services regarding its core work. Tusla is providing guidance and information to all staff, service users and the public via the Tusla website. Tusla also continues to liaise with the HSE on the restoration of systems and has deployed significant ICT resources to enable safe access to internal systems as soon as possible.
I'd like to stress that while Tusla has been significantly affected by the attack, it continues to prioritise Child Protection and Children in Care Services. As Tusla’s referrals portal has been impacted, Tusla is asking that anyone with a concern about a child contacts their local duty social work office by phone. Details are available on the front page of their website. Staff across all Tusla services are continuing with core work supported by manual systems.
My officials and I will continue to proactively monitor and manage this most serious matter, and to support Tusla at this time.
