Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I wish to express my sympathy on the passing of the businessman and child campaigner Jonathan Irwin. I extend my sympathies to his wife, former Senator Mary Ann O'Brien, his family and all the staff, nurses and children who avail of supports from the Jack and Jill Foundation. He was a wonderful man who did so much for many sick children.

Yesterday morning, William Porter from County Donegal gave a harrowing account on Highland Radio of the false allegations made against him by Tusla social workers, and the devastating impact it had on his family and children. Tusla social workers falsely accused him of child abuse of his own children. Tusla has now given him an official apology, and of course after a High Court case the State must pay compensation. Deputy Pearse Doherty raised this here last week with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.

I have spoken to William Porter. What is deeply troubling about this case is that it appears there has been State collusion by Tusla and An Garda Síochána in the Republic, and PSNI child protection services in Northern Ireland, to frame an innocent man for a crime he did not commit, and to deny him access to his daughter for several years. This is shocking. I can remember the Dowra case with the former Minister, Seán Doherty, and the furore, and there was no child abuse in it. However, this is outrageous.

The scandal is just the latest in a long list of scandals involving Tusla that are drip-fed to us every week, and which are wreaking devastating consequences on families and children. A study by the UCD school of social policy, social work and social justice, published in June, revealed that teenage girls taken into care by Tusla and accommodated in private residential care were being trafficked for sexual exploitation by gangs of predatory men. That was last June. In September, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, confirmed that his Department deleted, if you would not mind, three of the four reports pertaining to children taken into care by Tusla, which were given to him by retired Judge Dermot Simms.

The common thread running through all of these cases is that there appears to be absolutely no accountability or respect for families or anybody else on the part of Tusla. It is a public body funded by the State. It is truly shocking. We had the spectacle announced last Tuesday that the regulatory body CORU is going to conduct an inquiry, in private, into the conduct of two or three of the social workers involved in the Maurice McCabe case ten years ago. Deich mbliana ó shin, and it is still not investigated. Now it is going to be an inside job. This just beggars belief.

Will the Taoiseach accept that Tusla, which will be a decade old next January, is unfit for purpose, is out of control, has no accountability and listens to nobody? Will he hold a public inquiry into it? It is badly needed. It must be remembered that Tusla is a public body, as I said, paid for by the taxpayer. It has a fundamental duty of self-scrutiny in the pursuit of high standards. As if all the allegations made by Tusla social workers were not bad enough, the agency is unable to determine the whereabouts of 52 children who were taken into care and are missing under the watch of Tusla. We need a public inquiry here.

See this speech in context