Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the Children's Rights Alliance published its annual report grading the last Government's performance in protecting children. While the report is to be credited with delivering a vital and necessary assessment, there is a major and shocking failure in it; in more than 300 pages, it makes virtually no mention or assessment of the almost 6,000 children in the care of Tusla. How can a report on the Government's performance in child welfare simply forget to mention this? This is worrying, considering that the Children's Rights Alliance comprises approximately 150 member organisations, many of whom receive funding from Tusla. Consequently, I ask that the Minister for children appear before the House to answer questions regarding the independence of this report. How can a partially Government-funded organisation that serves as an umbrella for numerous Government-sponsored NGOs be expected to give a neutral assessment of a Government agency? How does the Department of children expect to resolve such conflicts of interest?

The omission of an assessment of Tusla is extremely concerning for another reason. In the past two years, a number of independent voices, including Judge Simms, UCD and the Child Law Project, among many others, have warned there is a serious danger that shortcomings in Tusla are being exploited for child trafficking. I therefore call for the Minister for children to appear before us to answer whether her Department has heard these concerns and what she is planning to do to address them.