Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 June 2023

Committee on Public Petitions

Ombudsman for Children's Annual Report 2021: Office of the Ombudsman for Children

Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I think there is a fixity around the way they see the solutions. Their solution is to say, "we need to fix what we have already got", as opposed to looking at how they can change it or do something different that still has children at the heart of it. I think the problem is they do not have children at the heart of it. If you have children at the heart of it, you would be innovating all the time, like a parent does. They think, "as I cannot get it this way, I am going to find some other way". It is a question of being innovative, to be changing, to be willing to change it and to make sure that every single angle is tried. They see a system and say, "We do not have enough psychologists; that is the answer". Well, what are they doing instead of psychologists? Who else are they hiring? What are they doing instead and how are they getting more psychologists? We keep working to the same system that has failed us.

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