Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for giving of their time. I will begin by wholeheartedly commend the work done by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office in partnership with so many other wonderful organisations like BelonG To, which does incredible work to amplify the voice of children and young people when it comes to rights in this country. I fully commend what the office continues to do.

In preparation for this meeting I was struck by the fact that we are seeing a lot of headlines. For example, over the last number of months it is expected that there will be 100,000 potential referrals to Tusla. There are 100,000 children experiencing consistent poverty in Ireland in 2024, close to 5,000 children experiencing homelessness and just under 2,000 complaints to the Ombudsman for Children’s Office in the last year. There is probably no scope for hypothetical questions but I will do it anyway. I wonder if we really heard the voices of those children and young people and if we really valued their experiences who are being so systematically traumatised just by growing up in this country, would our social policy better reflect those experiences? Dr. Muldoon will not have time to answer my question and I am not going to put it to him.

This morning, we have seen media reports on Tusla. Earlier Ms Ward said that Tusla was like a parent. I was a youth worker for many years and Tusla was a safety net for many children and young people. Now, Tusla is looking to sign a €1 million contract for hiring security guards to work in residential care if and when issues of violence happen. What are Dr. Muldoon's thoughts about such potential infringements on children and young people's rights?

I will touch on the Deputy's hypothetical. If the Government was to listen to children the solutions would be much easier and much better, because they do not ask for too much. They always ask for what is fair and equitable. That is something and it is why we want the incorporation of the UN convention. It forces every organisation and every Department, all 18 of them, to listen to children and get the solutions.

From the Tusla point of view, as far as we are concerned we have had a rowing back in the support Tusla provides to people and that is a really big shame. There are approximately 5,800 children in care. If you are talking about hiring security guards then you are missing the whole point of what Tusla is supposed to provide. It is supposed to provide care and safety and that is supposed to be done in a professional setup that involves social workers and properly qualified care people, but we have so many children, up to 300 a year, going through the special emergency accommodation setting that any one of us who had to live through that and be provided with care through that system could end up being violent. You could really get traumatised by it. Sometimes the children are just sitting there with no education and no interaction. It is just a security guard, a social worker or an agency worker who might only be social care providing them with just a presence. We are not providing properly for those children in the way we should do. The hiring of security guards is a real negative step backwards, unfortunately, and I hope this does not come to fruition. As far as we are concerned, €1 million could go a long way on more appropriate care. There are a lot of flaws in the way Tusla is doing work and the way we are providing for the more difficult children we have. That can be seen in the special care situation with the loss of the high-support units and the fact we have gone from 95% foster care support down to 88% foster care support. There are a range of children there who are now falling. There is either special care or foster care and in between is really not catered for properly. There is a lot of work to be done there and that is why we have asked members to put Tusla down as something to look at to ensure it is getting the full resources and appropriate services so it can provide.