Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, €800 million was allocated to the mother and baby homes redress scheme, and rightly so. What have we learned as a nation, however, and are the mistakes of today going to be our horror stories of tomorrow? Last week, I was horrified by the report from the national review panel on children and young people in State care. Since 2010, 236 deaths have been reported, and 56 of these were through suicide. Last year, 30 children died in care, seven through suicide. One of these, whom I knew through the emergency services, was in a residential placement home, while six were in after-care and 23 of the young people lived in communities and were known to Tusla with supported services.

Let me explain emergency services in this context. I was part of these emergency services for several years, where people spend one week on call and the next week off, before being on call again for another week. People on call for a week might get a child in the middle of the night and they keep the child for three nights. There will be somebody else to take that bed in the following three nights. These are young teenagers, unloved and unwanted, who then go into residential placements. Those placements are in a residential home, where social workers look after these children. There is no family unit or love and support network there. Children are dying today because of neglect by the State.

There are some fantastic foster parents and foster families out there, so I plead with our nation and with those who have homes, beds and spare rooms in their houses to please consider fostering these children. They come with their trials and their baggage, but there is no child that we cannot help. We must give these children every possible support. It is wrong that children are dying in the hands of the State. It is absolutely wrong that they are taking their own lives because they see no way out of the system they are in. They might be coming into that system with a plastic bag full of their belongings. This is 2021, and here we have children coming into us with a plastic bag, having left home with not even a suitcase. They are revolving through the system and may end up in care for a year and a half before finding a placement, and in that time going from house to house without getting a permanent home. Therefore, we must learn about the mistakes we made in the past, but these are the mistakes we are making today. I hope the Leader can press people to consider fostering and opening their houses and their hearts to a young person.