The Child and Family Agency, Tusla, says that referrals are starting to increase again after a significant drop at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Local Area Manager, Marie Kennedy, is reassuring the public that the agency is still providing essential services, and encourages people to refer any concerns on to them.
Tusla provides services, including child protection as well as sexual and gender based violence services.
Marie has been outlining the recent trends in the number of referrals they’ve received:
“The first few weeks, we saw a significant reduction in our referrals to our child protection services. And I suppose that, coupled with the fact that children weren’t attending school – where teachers would often be the eyes and ears for children – we were very worried in the initial stages particularly, that our referral rates had gone down.
“The main referrals we were receiving were from the Gardaí rather than from our normal source of referrals.”
Marie says it’s important that people get in touch with their service if they have any concerns:
“The quickest way is to make contact with the two dedicated points of contact in Tipperary. For North Tipperary they can call 067 46660, and in South Tipperary it’s 052 6177302. That’s 9am-5pm and they’re maintained, and have been throughout the whole period since the beginning of March.”
