Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With all due respect, the Minister of State's response grossly understates the underperformance of Tusla in meeting its statutory obligation to protect the country's most vulnerable children in State care. Tusla's dysfunction is hiding in plain sight, as was pointed out to those present on 13 June in the Dáil public petitions committee meeting by the Alliance of Birth Mothers Campaigning for Justice. They are petitioning to have legislation introduced to provide HIQA with statutory powers to sanction Tusla where inspections find that the agency is non-compliant with regulatory standards.

Last week, Judge Conor Fottrell said it was shocking, appalling and damning that 225 children taken into Tusla's care in Dublin, south-west Kildare, west Wicklow and Dublin south-central have no social worker. They are his words, not mine. Tusla's "failure to inform the courts of this, as the agency was obliged to do, was "a failure of management at local, regional and national level" and raised "serious concerns" about issues of governance and communication within the agency at all levels.

It is a welcome development to see members of the Judiciary are now raising their voices on a regular basis. However, we must not forget there are some rotten apples in the barrel who, along with Tusla, are sheltered from public scrutiny by the in camera rule. This rule is very discouraging and damaging to cases. In May, former Circuit Court judge Gerard O'Brien was jailed for four years for assaulting six boys and attempting to rape one other. Following this jailing, I was contacted by a mother who believes her children were unlawfully detained by gardaí and handed over to Tusla and social workers, who were successful in getting a court order to take the children into State care following an ex-parte hearing at the District Court. She was not informed of that. It is an appalling litany. For the Minister of State to come in here and just read out that bland statement is totally unacceptable. It is time the Government took this highly dysfunctional organisation under proper legal process and made them accountable to the families they are wrecking in many cases.

See this speech in context