Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Opposition Members for bringing this Private Members' motion before us, as well as the Minister of State for his interest in rectifying the situation that has existed for far too long.

I want to tell the House about a little fellow I became friends with in July this year. He is seven years of age and his name is Seán Daniel. He lived in Portlaoise for six years and was moved to a reception centre in my constituency in March this year. He has severe autism, special dietary needs and still wears nappies because he has not managed toilet training yet. His mother is abused in the most horrific way. If she does not toe the line and do what certain people want her to do in the reception centre, his food is withheld from her. She has special food given on a weekly basis so that she can cook for him because his dietary needs are so severe. His food is withheld from her, however, if she does not dance to the tune of the people in the kitchen of the reception centre.

During the summer, she got involved in an altercation with somebody in the kitchen because of the food. A guard allegedly assaulted her. Until she was intimidated to give blood in Drogheda so that he could prove there was nothing physically wrong with him as a result of her biting him during this alleged assault, they withheld Seán Daniel's nappies. He could not go back to school in September because he had no nappies, until he got a call from the school to say that the school would give him nappies. However, the school gives him only two nappies a day although he is seven. The woman is stitching the nappies together during the daytime so that she can dry them out and put them on him tonight or tomorrow.

There are plenty of issues surrounding these reception centres, including the fact that people are in them for far too long. In addition there are loopholes and we do not give them any money, liberty or the ability to work. All of that is horrendous but I will leave it aside for a second. The intimidation and abuse that is happening to this woman, who is on her own with her seven-year-old severely autistic child, is an absolute disgrace. When I reported the matter to the Child and Family Agency, the lady I spoke to rang the provision centre and spoke to the manager. The manger told her: "Oh God, no, that's not true. She gets her food every week and has been getting nappies for months." The woman from the agency rang me back and said I was not to worry about it because I was being told a lie. I have been up in this lady's house - I use that word very loosely - every week since July. It is not a lie. It raises more questions because the lady in the Child and Family Agency was quite willing to take the manager's response as gospel without investigating it herself. I have reported that to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. This is wrong.

HIQA issued draft national guidelines this week for standards in our special care units, which are units which children attend as a last resort. I appreciate what the Minister of State is doing. In the interim, however, before the Minister of State's report group comes back - please God they will come back quicker than some of our other special working groups have done - the draft guidelines should be applied to reception and integration centres. A champion should be appointed for people who are going through years of processes that we are making them go through. Somebody should be given the responsibility to be their champion to whom they can go. Right now they have nobody, so they are coming to constituency offices like mine or Deputy Eoghan Murphy's.

The standards are appalling and there is a complete lack of care for human beings in this country. We talk about legacy issues in Ireland and say it was a different time and culture then. We say that in the past things were accepted because we did not talk about them. Today, however, we are doing exactly the same on our watch. The working group should take a wider view of the whole process. Immediate changes would make a real impact on the lives of people who are currently in limbo.

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