In November 2012, after the passing of the children’s rights referendum, then taoiseach Enda Kenny said the result would “help make childhood a good, secure and loving space for all our children.
“It will also give hope, reassurance and confidence to parents, foster parents and vulnerable children,” he said. Director of elections and current Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “History will record . . . that the Irish people voted today to enshrine children’s rights in our constitution”.
More than a decade on, a letter from a former District Court judge, published this week, warns the rights of some of our most vulnerable children in the State’s care are being so fundamentally failed that the State could face legal claims.
Mr Justice Dermot Simms wrote to four Government Ministers – for Children, for Health, for Justice and for Public Expenditure – and several public bodies, in a letter dated May 17th, 2023, when still on the bench, with his “utmost concern for the immediate predicament and welfare of children . . . in the care of the State”.
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He warned that an “unprecedented crisis” in services for the most at-risk children in care was leading to a “likelihood” of claims against the State, as up to 130 were in “unsuitable” and “unapproved” placements, such as holiday centres, hotels and B&Bs, as there is nowhere else to put them. Correctly, he notes the crisis cannot solely be laid at the door of Tusla. “Systemic failures” across An Garda Síochána, the Department of Education, the HSE and the Prison Service were undoing, undermining and frustrating the best efforts of frontline social workers to comply with regulations and protocols.
Interim chief executive of Tusla, Kate Duggan, is to be commended for not shying away from his strong words. The agency was facing unprecedented challenges, she agreed, including increasing referrals, an inadequate supply of placements and foster families and difficulties recruiting and retaining social workers and social care workers.
Agencies on which Tusla, and the children in its care, rely are stymied by the lack of resources they need too: the Garda to investigate alleged child sex abuse in a timely manner; the Prison Service to provide adequate facilities for children to visit parents in prisons; the HSE to provide a fit-for-purpose mental health services to children; and the Department of Education to provide adequate assessments, and special needs and psychological services.
Tackling the impact of poverty, mental ill-health, addiction and trauma on vulnerable families and their children is complex work, requiring significant investment. As the priorities for Budget 2024 are formulated, making the childhoods of our most vulnerable children whom our State takes into its care, a good, secure and loving space, must be a priority.
