Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations; they were really interesting. Some great points were made by colleagues. I wish to reference Senator Ruane's observations about teaching. I went to school in Finglas, and I cannot recall any of the teachers being from the area. My parents did not hit me, but some of my teachers did, which is extraordinary. I explained it to my 18-year-old daughter and she told me it was criminal. When I look back on it, it was a kind of a criminal enterprise. I know that teaching has moved on since then. When I was 20, I qualified as a primary school teacher and I did interviews all over Dublin in 1987. I remember the chairperson of one of the boards of management, who was a priest, telling me that he had his doubts about me because I had one foot in primary teaching and the other foot in Finglas. There was even an in-built scepticism then. In speaking to Senator Ruane's point, I have just come from the Techonolgical University Dublin, where there is a school of social care. I am on the panel at Trinity College and I know that the students in the school of social work are from very diverse backgrounds. I am sure the witnesses know that more than I do. There are grounds for optimism there.

My question is on an area that I am not really au faitwith, but it reminds me of the disability space, which I am familiar with. The witnesses described the churn of social workers in Tusla and elsewhere. Is the cause of that turnover of staff the same as the reason the HSE cannot keep speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, namely, because there are difficult working conditions with a very small resource and huge demand?I imagine it is probably the same for social workers in Tusla and elsewhere.

Leading into the next question, I congratulate the witnesses on the roll-out of the service, which is trauma-informed. Many of the parents whose children have been taken into care have been traumatised and harmed themselves. There are 3,500 children who are homeless this Christmas. The State and its institutions have a very poor record in terms of how they treat children. The parents whose children are taken from them and put into care are a symptom of the overall system that we have in Ireland. We really do fail in our duty of care to children, people with disabilities and anybody who is vulnerable in this State. It is a cold house for people who are vulnerable, whether they are elderly, on a trolley, homeless or children. It is really tough. On the service that is being rolled out, do the witnesses know whether similar services in other jurisdictions are provided by charities or by the State themselves? Is there a country, either in the EU or internationally, that serves as a model that fits with what the witnesses' understanding of what best practice ought to be or could be?