Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Dr. Niall Muldoon and his team and welcome him here this evening to the Public Gallery. This is a really important report which, unfortunately, paints a very depressing childhood for the 5,000-plus children living in direct provision, hotels and emergency reception centres in Ireland right now. I share the concerns that are raised in this report. From our own constituency work, we know about some of the issues and difficulties. The issues are so serious that it is good to have the opportunity to discuss them here. I want to thank Deputy Pringle for using his time to sponsor the report.

The children's committee also published a report this week on the challenge being presented by the recent increase in the number of people coming to Ireland seeking protection. The report clearly shows, and the State accepts, that there are serious shortcomings in the delivery of essential services for children and in the operation of safeguarding and welfare checks for children seeking international protection. We really need to stop and think about that for a second, because we are talking about children here. We know that we are failing them. We already have such a poor history of how we have treated children and yet, we seem to be just repeating that depressing and disgraceful history.

Both IPAS and Tusla accepted the recommendations of the ombudsman’s report in 2021 and despite the Government committing to end direct provision in a White Paper of the same year, there continues to be a growing number of international protection children in temporary accommodation that is inadequate to provide the necessary safeguarding and welfare for them.

The report condemns the use of commercial hotels, in particular, for housing both international protection applicants and people from Ukraine availing of temporary protection. They are widely considered unsuitable for children due to the lack of safeguarding available. At present, however, more than half of all children who are international protection applicants are living in commercial hotels. There also are no regulations in place for the inspection of accommodation for international protection applicants. HIQA has quite a limited role in this regard. Furthermore, Tusla reports that there are concerns about there being no requirement to demonstrate that their child safeguarding statements are being upheld by providers of emergency accommodation. Effectively, emergency accommodations catering to children are, in and of themselves, not suitable, are subject to limited independent inspections and are self-policing in their provision of child safeguarding. It is incredible to think that we are allowing a situation like this to develop in 2023.

On top of this, the report also highlights the limited ability of IPAS to carry out the required assessment of accommodation for children in line with the reception directive and regulation. Recent media reports highlighted that only 574 assessments were undertaken in 2021 and 600 up to September 2022. The Department then, in its wisdom, decided centres would provide the assessments in the form of a questionnaire to international protection applicants and that completing these questionnaires was voluntary. The Irish Refugee Council roundly criticised this process for the lack of information provided to international protection applicants and for the lack of involvement of social care professionals.

A total of 464 vulnerability assessments were carried out through to May of this year, which covers one in ten child international protection applicants, with 50% subsequently being referred to social workers. From these figures, there can be no doubt but that a large number of children in the international protection system are not getting the care they need and are entitled to. We simply cannot allow this situation to continue.

The general planning failure springs from the Government White Paper that proposed the abolition of direct provision, a goal it is now reviewing with the realisation that it cannot be delivered right now. The White Paper failed to accurately anticipate the demand for international protection and while I appreciate the war in Ukraine has presented significant challenges, we are not meeting our moral and legal obligations in relation to the protection of children. We are now nearly two years into that situation. We cannot keep saying that it is an emergency or an unexpected situation. At this point we have to have forward planning.

Children are bearing the brunt of the Government's failures. The housing support organisation,Threshold, reports that children in emergency accommodation suffer from poor metal health, struggle to build and maintain relationships with peers, have poorer physical health, and increased difficulty in education. Clearly these arrangements have a detrimental effect on children already forced to travel thousands of miles in uncertainty and fear.

The provision of services for children in direct provision should not be considered an emergency or crisis, nor should it be seen as a burden. Compared to the vast majority of countries in the world, we are a wealthy country and should play our part, remembering a time when we ourselves were grateful for the shelter provided to those who went before us and who fled famine and persecution at home. As a society we must ask ourselves how seriously we consider the needs of vulnerable children. It is not good enough to simply house children in inadequate settings and pretend that they are being provided for. We must find a better way to provide resources in order that these children can obtain an education, build up social connections and enjoy a happy childhood which is the entitlement of every child on this island.

Under the current system implemented by the Government, through the failure to adequately plan and deal with the issue, one would have to ask whether, in 30 or 40 years’ time, the treatment of those, especially children, in direct provision and emergency accommodation will be another stain on the country’s treatment of vulnerable people. Before I conclude, I want to mention two situations in the context of vulnerable children. First, I wish to mention all the children in Palestine who are being slaughtered at present. The situation there for children is grave. We are going to see a huge amount of displacement in the region. It is important that we remember them and that we highlight the situation at every opportunity.

Second, representatives from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office gave a presentation in the audiovisual room this week on children's mental health. This is also a very important issue. They highlighted some very serious concerns but also gave some really good suggestions on how we can tackle many of these issues. I said it at the briefing and I will say it again, we are extremely lucky to have someone of the calibre of Dr. Niall Muldoon and his team advocating for children. We need to listen to what they are saying. While I am sure they appreciate the words spoken in here, I am sure what they really want to see is action. It is about time we do that for our children. It is Thursday evening. I have said it here many times, the topics that affect women and children are always pushed to the end of the agenda. We have seen it consistently and we see it again this week.

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