Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2023
56. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps being taken to ensure that children are not exploited when under the residential care of Tusla; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31581/23]
View answer57. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide an update on child protection and welfare practices in publicly funded and run residential care facilities; if his Department monitor cases of suspected abuse; if provision to address issues highlighted by Tusla will be included in budget 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32483/23]
View answerMy question relates to the recent report that has been in the media. Can the Minister provide an update on child protection and welfare practices in publicly funded and publicly run residential care facilities? Is there any sort of oversight or monitoring from the Department with regard to suspected abuse? Will there be provision to address issues highlighted by Tusla included in this budget? The Minister might give us some more information. I am sure he is aware of the report to which I refer.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 56 and 57 together.
I thank the Deputy for raising the question. Children in the care of the State are some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, and my Department are committed to promoting safe and high-quality practice in all areas of alternative care.
Tusla has a statutory obligation to notify An Garda Síochána of all incidents of suspected child sexual exploitation, including those relating to children in the care of the State. An Garda Síochána leads the investigation into these notifications. Consequently, Tusla liaises closely with the Garda and also has an assigned principal social worker based with the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, GNPSB. On a more local level, each Tusla area implements its own local area management meetings with local Garda divisional child protection units to review progress on Garda notifications.
The issues raised in the recently published University College Dublin, UCD, scoping report with regard to the potential sexual exploitation of children are concerning. My Department and Tusla continue to progress a number of key developments in response to this area. First, in 2021, Tusla implemented its child exploitation procedure in partnership with An Garda Síochána. This provides Tusla staff and carers with information on how to recognise indicators of child sexual exploitation, how to make appropriate referrals and how to respond to cases where children may be at risk of sexual exploitation. All staff in these residential centres have undergone Children First training, which provides guidance for the protection and welfare of children. This training assists staff to assess the children in their care and to act in appropriately if matters of concern arise. The joint working protocol between Tusla and An Garda Síochána forms a critical part of the response to child abuse and neglect, and particularly with regard to child sexual exploitation. There are regular meetings by Tusla local area and also Tusla’s national children’s residential service with An Garda Síochána in respect of child sexual exploitation referrals.
Second, Tusla has established an anti-trafficking working group in preparation for the Department of Justice's national action plan for human trafficking, which includes the area of child sexual exploitation. Third, my Department also recently established jointly with Tusla a working group looking at institutional and organisational abuse. This work is ongoing, including reviewing criteria for the definition of such abuse and reviewing further supports and guidance for staff around any potential indicators of child sexual exploitation of children in State care.
Importantly, Tusla has had a principal social worker seconded to the Garda National Protective Service Bureau. Their role is to provide social work specialist support to the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, including child protection related knowledge and expertise. The role includes supporting the bureau around notifications received relating to children in care and also in the community, including around issues of notifications of child sexual exploitation.
My Department is also leading an interdepartmental group on the national implementation of Barnahus, which is a multi-agency approach to the provision of intervention and services to children subject to child sexual abuse. A pilot has been in operation in Barnahus West in County Galway for the past number of years, which the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and I visited, with additional centres planned to be established in the east and south of the country.
Finally, where there may be child welfare concerns, the onus falls on all of us to report concerns that a child may have been, is being or is at risk of being abused or neglected. Tusla has developed a comprehensive referral system through which organisations, the public and mandated people can share their concerns for a child potentially at risk of neglect or abuse. My Department will work closely with Tusla in terms of responding to the issues raised in the UCD scoping review. The Deputy has written to me directly on this issue in terms of her role as Chair of the Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration. We will, of course, respond to update her on the various elements in that regard.
I thank the Minister. I welcome some of those points he made, particularly around some of the new working groups. I assume they were established recently enough. Maybe they were established even after this report was published. Obviously, however, it is very concerning and worrying for us.
Some particularly worrying things that stuck out to me were that in some instances, front-line workers were uncertain about reporting their suspicions and felt uncomfortable discussing sexual exploitation or did not know what to do. It is nearly impossible to believe that was the case, but we have to absolutely ensure that whatever safeguards, training and expertise are needed in this area are put in place. One of the things that was recommended was to look at specialist knowledge that exists in England following inquiries into the sexual exploitation of children in Rochdale. One of the recommendations in the report was that we would look at that here and see whether some of that can be mirrored. However, I would like to know-----
I thank the Deputy.
Am I over time?
Yes. I call Deputy Naughten
During the noughties, 443 children went missing from State care, none of whom was ever found. That was approximately 44 children per year who disappeared without trace, and at least some of these unaccompanied minors ended up in the prostitution industry. This dropped to fewer than four per year after the State policy changed from placing unaccompanied migrant children in foster care rather than residential facilities.
From reading the Protecting Against Predators: A Scoping Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People in Ireland research paper, it seems to me that Tusla has learned absolutely nothing from past failures. Children in State-run residential facilities are again being sexually exploited and the staff are not even being provided with the basic tools to deal with this. This is 14 years after authorities accepted that there was a problem with migrant children in the exact same situation that our own children are today.
I thank the Deputy and call the Minister to respond, please.
I thank the Deputies. I am actually dealing with a question later in terms of children who go missing from care. Obviously, any child missing from care for any period is a real concern, but it is really important to say that the vast majority are returned to care safely. However, that is not to say that even one child continuously missing from care is not a matter of real concern.
Deputy Funchion raised the issue of incidents that have taken place in the United Kingdom and how we could respond. That is why it is important that we have that interdepartmental group to look at institutional and organisational abuse. That is something we put in place that briefly predates this report by maybe four or five months. It is up and running and taking place and it will be considering the issues raised in this report.
Absolutely, some of the quotations in this report are really concerning. As soon as it was published, I rang the interim chief executive of Tusla, Ms Kate Duggan. We discussed the issue and the steps that are taking place. I will be working very closely with Tusla in order that I and the House can be assured that key steps are being taken.
I have already outlined five key areas in which steps have been taken in the last 18 months to two years that are explicitly directed towards the protection of children in care and ensuring that Tusla is directly linked in with An Garda Síochána when a child does go missing. That is why having a seconded social worker in the Garda National Protective Services Bureau is important. Deputies should remember that the protective services bureau is a relatively new innovation from An Garda Síochána, specifically designed to investigate cases like this. There is much better inter-agency co-operation between Tusla and An Garda Síochána and they have the capacity to respond to incidents like those raised by the Deputies.
I would like to know more about the Barnahus project about which the Minister spoke because I want to be solution-focused here. The report is damning and very upsetting. We want to see how we can prevent this going forward. I am not sure if it is possible for us to get some more information, obviously, not in this answer but even outside of that as a committee. We can maybe do a visit, if that is appropriate. It would be good to see whether that is actually working and whether we can learn from that experience. I know it does not fall into the Minister's area but protected services units need many more resources, and I always try to mention that whenever I can.
The other issue I want to raise is the principal social worker. I welcome that, but is it one person? Is that one principal social worker? He or she must be totally overwhelmed trying to deal with all the cases or direct all the information. Again, that comes back to a resource issue. I would like to see if we could get more information on the pilot programme to see whether it is working. This is an area that particularly affects young girls and women, and we have already failed women so much in this country.
I really accept the Minister's bona fides with regard to this, but I am really frustrated that we are here 14 years later and have not progressed.
I have a reply from 18 November 2009 in which the Minister's predecessor, former Minister of State Barry Andrews, assured the House that a protocol was being put in place with the Garda and the HSE at that stage, 14 years ago. It is clear that when foster carers are responsible for the care of some of our most vulnerable children, they are less likely to be exploited. I have given an example of that from 14 years ago. There is clear evidence that providing those children at the time with a foster home rather than a hostel facility was a far better support for them.
In recent years, we have seen a fall-off in the number of foster parents because the foster allowance has not increased since 2009. Can the Minister give the House an assurance that he will encourage and support children to be put into foster care and acknowledge the role that foster parents have in respect of this matter by increasing the foster care allowance for the first time in 14 years?
I thank the Deputy. I am pleased to be able to say there has been an increase in the level of foster carers. It has gone up by 1%, from 89% to 90%, so it is going in the right direction. That is really important. When comparing Ireland with other countries, the number of children who are in care, including foster care, is extremely high. We want to continue to support foster carers. In my budget Estimates campaign, I will certainly work to secure an increase in the foster care allowance. When I started off in this role, I specifically designed a foster care programme for unaccompanied minors. It is the Fáilte Foster care programme. It is specifically designed and has worked really well.
My colleague, Deputy Costello, makes that point about wanting to see Tusla a social worker seconded to all the local protective services bureaux. That is certainly something that would work well. It is a single social worker in the protective services. It is the national element. There is a co-ordination role to make sure local gardaí know who they need to get in touch with. Barnahus is working really well. Maybe Deputy Funchion will have the opportunity to visit at some point and we can provide more information. It is a one-stop location where a child or young person who has been the victim of a sexual crime receives the various tests, evidence is taken and statements are given. No one has to go to the station or the hospital. It all takes place in the one location, which is specifically designed to minimise, as much as possible, the trauma of such a situation for a child.
