Government cannot use Tusla to avoid responsibility, Peadar Tóibín says

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

Children in the care of Tusla are being “raped”, “groomed” and “killed”, the Dáil has been told.

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín raised the matter following an RTÉ Investigates programme into the “obscene” care of children, which was broadcast on Wednesday night.

He told the Dáil: “Young children are being taken from very difficult backgrounds, from their parents, and they’re being placed into special emergency arrangements.

“These are often unregulated. Often have staff that are unvetted, and some of those staff don’t even have references.”

During Leaders’ Questions on Thursday, he said children were being moved around on multiple occasions within a short space of time.

He said there were cases of children sleeping in car parks and broken down cars.

“They’re being groomed by crack cocaine dealers,” he said.

“Children are being sexually abused while in the care of Tusla.

“Children are being raped in the care of Tusla and known to Tusla at the moment.”

Peadar Tóibín said there was a case where a 14-year-old girl who went missing from Tusla was found a year later in a brothel and had been the victim of “unimaginable exploitation”.

He also told the Dáil: “Children are being killed in the care of Tusla and known to Tusla.”

Tóibín said Tusla could not be used as an “insulating blanket” to protect the Government from responsibility.

Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Dáil the “vast majority” of children in care are “thriving” and “being well looked after”, but said there were “harrowing failures” in some cases.

Harris commended RTÉ Investigates as well as the children and those with experiences of the care system for participating.

He said “very vulnerable children” had endured “horrors” while being in the care of the State.

Harris said there were “very many fine people” working in “extraordinarily difficult circumstances” in Tusla.

On the special emergency arrangements, Harris said: “This is effectively where the State becomes reliant on a private operator to provide accommodation in an emergency situation.

“It is good to see that the reliance on that is being reduced, though still too high.

“I think it has been reduced from around 170 children in special emergency arrangements last year to now down to 70.”

Harris said Tusla had stopped working with six centres and five centres had been referred to An Garda Síochána.

Pressed for an answer on accountability and resourcing for the care system, the Tánaiste said: “I think we need to be very careful here.

“There’s extraordinarily harrowing cases that deserve, require the full investigation.”

He added: “But we also should acknowledge that Tusla isn’t the problem here.

“Tusla are working with children very, very vulnerable and very complex situations, and the vast majority – it’s not acceptable for any child, by the way, any child to have an adverse or bad experience- but it is important to say that there’s around 6,000 in our care system living with foster parents, living in registered centres.”

The matter was raised a short time later by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty, who said: “This is systemic and it is a politic failure.”

Harris said he had a conversation with Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan following the programme.

“They are making real progress in terms of reducing the reliance on SEAs.”

Labour TD Mark Ward asked if Government would launch an investigation into the findings of the RTÉ programme.

Harris said: “Government will of course want to receive a full report from Tusla in relation to this.”

He said there has been a reduction in reliance on SEAs, adding that it should be accelerated.