Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The admission by senior HSE assistant national director for children and families, Mr. Phil Garland, on today's "Morning Ireland", later confirmed by the HSE director of integrated services, Ms Laverne McGuinness, at the Committee of Public Accounts, that there are 20 reports on the deaths of children in State care awaiting publication, can only be described as truly shocking. No valid excuse was offered for the delay in the publication of these reports. They should be issued without further delay. They should also be forwarded to the Ombudsman for Children, the Health Information and Quality Authority and to the Garda Síochána. The identities of the children and their families can be protected if need be. They do not have to be published, because what is most important is that the facts of the cases are known and that the lessons are learned and acted upon.

In a parliamentary question on 7 July 2009, I sought information on the number of unpublished or redacted reports conducted by the HSE or the former health boards. I have never received a comprehensive reply, despite repeated follow-up questions to the Minister and to the HSE. I have been told that the information was proving "difficult to collate", yet this morning a HSE spokesperson was able to go on the air and acknowledge 20 unpublished reports on the deaths of children in State care. Why has this information been withheld over all these months? I hope this question will be answered and we find out why the Department and the HSE have failed to respond to a series of questions by Members on these and other matters.

The report on the tragic life and death of Ms Tracey Fay in State care has caused huge concern about the lack of adequate child protection services in this society. This is not a new concern. It has been repeatedly raised for many years, with thousands of children who are vulnerable and at risk still being denied access to initial assessments of their plight.

The Ryan report on the abuse of children in institutions and the report on abuse in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin exposed the widespread and systematic abuse of children up to approximately the end of the 1980s. We must to focus on neglect and abuse in more recent times and, above all, address the systematic failures that allow children to be victimised or neglected in 2010. That abuse and neglect has proved fatal in a number of cases, which was confirmed by the Minister of State in his opening remarks. That is why we are engaging in this debate.

In 1990, the Comptroller and Auditor General carried out a review of the then Department of Education's special schools. The review in question found that the children in those schools were not being accommodated in the particular institutions appropriate to their needs - which continues to be the case - that the facilities were not being managed properly and that the Department was not carrying out its overseeing role in a satisfactory manner. In 1992, the Committee of Public Accounts, having considered the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, recommended that the then Departments of Justice, Health and Education and the then health boards jointly address the problem of these special schools and the problems of all children in residential care.

The position is that these recommendations were never acted upon. The schools in question represented the end of the line for troubled children who ended up in court because behavioural, social and family problems were not properly addressed at an early stage. That is still happening. The scandal is that it is happening along the pathway of so-called care provided by the State. The reports to which I refer were compiled in the early 1990s and sounded early alarm bells. Alarm bells have rung periodically in the interim, but precious little has been done.

Last year, the Ballydowd centre in west Dublin was closed following a damning report from HIQA. That closure raised major concern in respect of child services in this State. The centre, which cost €13 million to put in place, was only in existence for nine years but had to be closed as a result of its unsuitability for the troubled children held there. The HSE has presided over a facility in which, as HIQA stated, there were "not enough staff to run the unit consistently and safely". How could this have been allowed to happen? I refer here to contemporary events; I am not engaging in a historical reassessment.

HIQA's national children in care inspection report, which included the report on Ballydowd, is a severe indictment of the State's failure to protect children. It highlights "serious deficits in standards aimed at safeguarding vulnerable children, including lapses in vetting procedures for staff and foster carers working with children". These are issues that I and others have repeatedly raised in the form of parliamentary questions to the Minister for Health and Children and at the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, the meetings of which the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, attended on a regular basis.

The woefully inadequate state of our child protection services has again been exposed in recent days. There are insufficient social workers and other front line staff and support systems in place. Children are in grave danger but the necessary services are not in place to facilitate the interventions required. The nightmare is, therefore, happening every day. Evidence suggests that, as a previous speaker indicated, most of this abuse takes place in the family home. If the services are not put in place, then the State will be just as culpable as it was in the past when it conspired with the church to cover up the abuse of children.

The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, who has ultimate responsibility, and the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, who has direct responsibility, must explain in detail how children have been let down so often. They must also indicate why these children continue to be let down by the State. They must act with urgency to bring the care of vulnerable children up to standard or else we will be presented with more Ryan reports in the years to come. The only difference will be that such reports will refer to what is happening in 2010. This problem is not confined to the past; it is current in nature.

The child protection crisis in this State requires a far more concerted and high-level approach than that taken by the Government at present. The essential steps that must now be taken should include the provision and resourcing of a full range of child protection services. The referendum on the constitutional amendment relating to children's rights, the wording of which has been agreed by the relevant committee, should be held as early as possible in the current year. This amendment is necessary in order to enshrine children's rights and protections in the Constitution.

Deputy Shatter referred to the Minister of State's position. I do not question the Minister of State's sincerity or good intent with regard to protections relating to children. I am also of the view, however, that while we have what can only be described as a secondary acceptance of the importance of child care as a result of the fact that only a Minister of State has responsibility for children, these matters will never be addressed in the serious manner that is required. I call on the Taoiseach, in the forthcoming reshuffle, to create a full Cabinet position of "Minister for Children". Such a development is vital. All of the reports that have been produced during this long, sad and sorry period in our history point to the need for such a Minister to be appointed. The children of this State, both current and future, deserve no less.

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