Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, on behalf of the Rural Independent Group, wish Deputies Murphy and Shortall the very best following their announcement.

All is not well in this State regarding children. Thirty-nine children in State care are missing. Just think of that. It is the second-last week before we break up for the summer recess, and 39 children are missing in State care. We need an urgent debate on Tusla. One Garda sergeant and three gardaí are suspended from duty and are facing charges of perverting the course of justice, burglary of flats and false imprisonment. A Tusla employee, a peace commissioner, is charged with forging a search warrant. Those are very serious charges. I 100% agree that people are innocent until proven guilty, but all is not well with Tusla. We need an urgent debate here, with questions and answers with the Minister for children especially. Imagine that 39 children in State care are missing, and we walk in and out of here and raise all kinds of issue. We had a children's referendum and there are children's rights and everything else, and this charade is going on. These children are missing from State care with no accountability, not a shred of it. We seriously need to debate this and have questions and answers with the Minister for children. He says he has the utmost faith in Tusla and has never missed a night's sleep over it, but I certainly do not and many others do not either.

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