Taoiseach Micheál Martin has described as “extremely disturbing” and “unacceptable” the forging of references for staff at unregulated children’s care homes.
An RTÉ Investigates documentary to be broadcast on Wednesday night highlights the disclosures in an internal report for Tusla, the Child and Family Agency.
The revelations came to light in emails between Tusla and Baig & Mirza Health Services Ltd trading as Kare Plus Dublin South, the biggest provider of such care homes.
The documentary, Inside the Care System, was highlighted during Dáil Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday by Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who said it “highlights shocking State failings in respect of children in care”.
READ MORE
She said the Children’s Rights Alliance “has described the haunting gaps in our country’s response to children in need of care”.
“We know the State only takes a child away from their parents and into care as a last resort, and in the most extreme circumstances, generally, where a child is subject to serious risk.”
Bacik said she used to act as Guardian ad Litem on behalf of vulnerable children in care proceedings, in “some of the most distressing situations imaginable”.
Demand for care places has increased, “but a lack of capacity has always been an issue in the system, and we’ve been approaching a breaking point for years now”, she said.
The Dublin Bay South TD also described as “extraordinary” that Tusla “routinely asks the courts to approve placing a child in care, while at the same time asking the judge not to grant a mandatory order requiring compliance with its legal obligations”.
She said having decided a child’s situation is so “dire as to require the State to act as their parent, the State it seems cannot recruit or retain enough staff to provide that State care, a starker failure you can scarcely conceive of”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald also referred to the documentary and described it as “another scandal involving the care of vulnerable children in this State”.
She said the forged references provided for staff in special emergency accommodation for children put “vulnerable children in harm’s way”.
McDonald said: “These settings are unregulated, poorly resourced, unregistered facilities not inspected by the authorities, and yet more than 1,000 children were placed in these settings last year.”
The State is paying “literally millions to private operators to run them because of the severe shortage of foster carers and regulated care home places, a shortage your Government allowed to develop”.
She asked the Taoiseach how he would “ensure accountability for this in the latest of a long line of scandals”.
Martin said the experiences described in the RTÉ documentary about young children coming into care was “extremely disturbing”. He said “the Government takes that with the utmost seriousness”.
There has been “huge investment in structural reform and a very determined effort to eliminate inappropriate placements”.
Demand for services “is increasing at a very rapid pace”, however. Demand for Tusla services has more than doubled since its establishment in 2014. Last year there were 106,000 children referred to the agency. “That’s a 10 per cent increase on previous years.”
The Taoiseach said: “There are clearly complex societal pressures, including domestic violence, homelessness and addiction, but 5,900 children are in foster or residential care. Close to 3,000 young people are in after care.”
The Government will continue to invest and increase investment to “try and enhance recruitment”. He said, however, it was also an issue of “getting the right quality people through and we have more work to do in that area”.
