The calls for a UK national statutory inquiry into so-called grooming gangs have at times smacked of political opportunism rather than genuine concern for the survivors. Nonetheless, we have no reason for complacency here.
In 2023, a UCD scoping study on the extent of sexual exploitation of children and young people in Ireland found that young people in the State care, particularly girls, were being targeted by older men who plied them with gifts, drink and drugs, and then exploited them sexually.
In one case involving a young girl, it was reported that there was a “stream of cars outside” a residential centre “practically every night of the week and worse at weekends”. Other young people in State care were being taken in taxis to hotels. One young man “with a learning difficulty and lots of other problems” was being taken away by adult men and returning with “a new video game, mobile phone, and ... unexplained sums of money”.
As one of the lead authors Dr Mary Canning says, there was a stark contrast between how long the RTÉ payments story – which broke at the same time – remained news and how quickly the scoping study faded from public awareness.
As UK grapples with Elon Musk’s interventions, there’s no room for complacency here on child protection
Jimmy Carter went to Mass in Waterford in 1995 - a sign of a deep faith that was often overlooked
Don’t be so cynical. It’s bad for your health
It’s a pity more of us don’t identify with Scrooge, the skinflint who was capable of change
The trauma these children have suffered even before they enter care often leads them to behave in challenging and even scary ways. Does that contribute to a “not our kind of kids” mindset, which allows us to discount the harm caused to them?
In fairness, as Tusla points out, 87 per cent of children in care today are placed in foster care, either with relatives or others. While underfunded and far from a perfect system, many children thrive. Conditions in regulated residential settings have also greatly improved. But for the most damaged children there has been a shameful crisis for years in the provision of special care places and step-down facilities. Instead, children have been placed with unregulated commercial providers with unqualified staff in so-called special emergency arrangements, including Airbnbs and hotels. My colleague Jack Power, in sterling, tenacious work has revealed commercial providers of special emergency accommodation “under-reporting” significant issues such as children going missing from care and child-protection concerns.
Until the recruitment and retention crisis is tackled by better pay and reduced caseloads for hard-working and dedicated professionals, traumatised children will not be able to build the kind of relationships needed to disclose sexual exploitation, much less to heal
Children ended up sharing bedrooms with bunk beds or double beds. One property smelled strongly of sewage; another had nothing warm or welcoming about it. Tusla cut ties with four providers after inspections. Another company, Ideal Care Services, was dispensed with for fabricating staff checks and Garda vetting. It had earned €9 million over two years. At one point it was running 15 different emergency accommodations.
But even in the better scenario of being placed in a Hiqa-inspected residential or special care setting with trained professionals, there is constant turnover in social workers and social care workers, with many posts remaining unfilled.
Until the recruitment and retention crisis is tackled by better pay and reduced caseloads for hard-working and dedicated professionals, traumatised children will not be able to build the kind of relationships needed to disclose sexual exploitation, much less to heal. The most vulnerable young people may as well have a neon sign on their heads flashing a message to sexual predators, who are up to every trick, from haunting hotel lobbies to following them from school.
In the UK child-grooming scandals, it emerged that instead of seeing victims of rape and abuse, some police saw “sluts consenting to relationships with multiple older men”. While there is no evidence of such prejudice among gardaí, the scoping study points out that sometimes they seemed to think that locating and returning a child to a care setting meant their job was done. No further inquiry happened into what transpired during the time of absence.
The State is throwing money at the problem but wastefully and ineffectually. Information on unregulated providers is hard to find, but last May, a parliamentary question from TD Peadar Tóibín established that in 2023 the top 10 unregulated providers of special emergency accommodation received sums ranging from €3.5 million to €13 million.
[ Tusla placed children with firm blacklisted over vetting concernsOpens in new window ]
In reply to a question about measures taken in the aftermath of the UCD scoping study, Tusla said it had put in place additional procedures and training to combat the “risk of child and human trafficking or exploitation of vulnerable young people”.
Established and professional voluntary organisations providing residential care and aftercare are starved of funds. The draft programme for government promises a short-term action plan addressing current issues in accessing appropriate care places, and a longer-term vision for how the care system will operate into the future.
Retired judges such as Dermot Simms have highlighted the crisis in provision of places as have – among many others – Barnardos, the Children’s Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association, the Child Law Project (currently in hiatus due to lack of funding), the Children’s Ombudsman, the Special Rapporteur for Child Protection and the National Review Panel which reviews cases of death and serious incidents involving children in Tusla’s care.
Yet we still do not know even the full scale of child sexual exploitation, and convictions are rare. We might sneer at Elon Musk’s motivations for inserting his ill-informed commentary into the UK debate but our own culpable neglect does us little credit, either.