On the face of it this seems like a reasonable Bill. I am sure that it is well intentioned and maybe it is the right thing to do. If I understand it correctly, it is to give the Department of Education some input and oversight with regard to the work of Tusla and educational welfare. That is pretty much it. With things having been transferred one way, and then transferred back another way, one would be forgiven for thinking it is a bit of pass the parcel and a moving around of deckchairs on the Titanic kind of thing.
I am not saying that is the case but when we account for the substantial issues – or, more to the point, the human beings, including the affected children and their families – we realise the importance of what Deputy Durkan was talking about, which is the need for things to be cohesive, continuous and integrated across Departments. When talking about the welfare of the vulnerable, particularly those with disabilities or special needs, we realise there is a real problem. Let us just start with that. There are many children with special needs and disabilities who are being let down badly. They cross over departmental demarcation lines because, of course, human beings do not fit neatly into a departmental silo, whether it is the Child and Family Agency, the Department of Education or the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I will move on to the issue of housing because people with a disability or special needs, when they reach a certain age, need to be housed. That is another area that becomes important. These elements need to be joined up.
The sort of correspondence that I and, I am sure, the Minister receive from families with children with disabilities and special needs points to a distinct lack of cohesion and integration. There is often a lack of willingness on the part of this or that Department, or a section of a Department, to take responsibility because it is always someone else's responsibility to sort these things out. That worries me. In that regard, let me give the Minister an example. The matter has been brought to his attention but the example dramatises it quite a bit. It would probably be best if I read directly the words of the mother of a vulnerable child in the category in question because she wants to communicate them to the Minister specifically and also to the rest of the Government. I will not mention names. Whether the Minister has seen the correspondence, I do not know. I have raised the issue once before, with the Taoiseach, who said he would bring it to the attention of the Minister. The correspondence, comprising two emails, is instructive, and what it describes is pretty awful. One states:
My name is [I will not state the name and] my child's name is …. [He] has a diagnosis of autism and also a learning disability, [he] is an extremely vulnerable child.
The other states:
[He] is 17 years of age. For the last ... three years now, the child and family agency (Tusla) have been involved in our lives. In March 2019 I had no other option but to place my very vulnerable special needs child in voluntary care with the [Child and Family Agency] due to very violent abusive behaviour at home [linked to his condition].
Let us not forget that 17 is schoolgoing age. To my knowledge, the youth has not been at school since. The email continues:
This has been a horrific ordeal for my son.
He was placed in a mainstream residential unit in Wexford. This placement broke down in early May of this year due to dangerous violent behaviour and property damage. I was then told either take him home or to put him into a homeless hostel in Blanchardstown.
I took him home in early May of this year. TUSLA provided no support for nearly 10 weeks the guards invoked a section 12 and put him in the care of the [Child and Family Agency] due to an extremely serious incident in the home.
I then refused to sign a voluntary care order and decided to go to court as I felt they were trying to throw my vulnerable child in homeless services when in fact he needed and still needs special care.
My son ... has so far been in 2 homeless hostels, a hotel and a semi independent living apartment. None of this is suitable or appropriate. This matter is ongoing before the court. I have made a series of very serious complaints to the ombudsman for children and TUSLA. I have been advised by my legal team to contact you [that is me]. I'm in desperate need of your help, I need this matter brought before the Dail as a matter of urgency. My child's life depends on it he is at serious risk of death due to misadventure. His disability is not being recognised and correct treatment is not being provided.
My son and I are being denied our constitutional rights. The [Child and Family Agency] are neglecting my very vulnerable child. This needs to be highlighted in the most serious way. I have been asking for over 2 years for an ASD unit [a residential ASD unit, but the youth is still in homeless accommodation and wandering the streets]. He is being abused and brutalised on the streets.
The mother holds the Child and Family Agency responsible. The email was written in September. The lady wrote subsequently. In this regard, it seems there may have been some correspondence with the Minister's office. It states:
My email is in response to an email received by my solicitor from the office of Minister O'Gorman.
I want to know when would the minister be in a position to intervene given the fact that Tusla is a government agency and we have proven over and over again before a court that Tusla are not fulfilling their constitutional duties to my son, a special needs vulnerable child, these are the facts. Maybe the minister would comment if my child ends up dead.
If Minister O'Gorman is in fact the minister for children in this country, then surely this matter would be taken very seriously by the minister now that it has been brought to his attention, after all, isn't he the one with the platform in the country to be the voice of the children and highlight the very serious failures to children in this country.
It was noted in the Minister's email that a placement has been identified for [my son] and he wishes his all the best. Well, that's very nice but I seem to remember receiving a similar email from the minister the last time a placement was identified [which then subsequently broke down because it was not suitable].
I want the minister to know that we really haven't come far from the time of industrial schools the only difference now is that children are not put in these schools they are thrown to the streets by our own government agency ... to be ... exploited, battered, brutalised and forever traumatised because we do not have the facilities or services or correctly trained people to deal with these very vulnerable, mentally ill autistic children. It's absolutely disgusting that nothing is being done!
There is more but I will not carry on as I believe the Minister gets the flavour. It is very disturbing. From talking to the mother, I regard it as beyond belief that the vulnerable child is being thrown into homeless accommodation. It is beyond belief that anyone is in homeless accommodation, but it is absolutely unacceptable and beggars belief that a child on the radar of the Child and Family Agency and with the acute needs in question – he has a severe form of autism – is in such accommodation. We have to have the services. What is occurring is not acceptable. It is fair for the mother to say we have the modern-day equivalent of the industrial schools if we do not provide the required services and essentially have a young and vulnerable child thrown to the wolves.
It will not be hard for the Minister to find out what correspondence there has been between his Department and the family in question. I ask him to do so as matter of urgency. The matter points to something bigger, which the mother finishes her email with: the lack of services and trained staff who know how to deal with these circumstances. This is apparent in the area of autism and special needs across the board. I am referring to people not getting the assessments they are legally entitled to. When they do get their assessments and their needs are identified, they are not getting the services.
There are a few problems, one of which is silos that want to absolve themselves of responsibility. The reason is often that they lack the resources. They want it to be somebody else's problem and things get pushed around. The parcel is passed. Would passing it actually solve anything? The approach should be needs led. We have to start with the needs and then provide the services necessary to meet them. Our doing so must not be based on what suits a particular silo or on the spreading of resources across the areas of need so thinly that they do not provide the support required.
As Deputy Durkan said, these are life-changing issues because if you get the support, it makes all the difference in the world for you, your family and your future, but if you do not get it, the damage can be permanent and sometimes fatal. We do not talk enough about when children move out of school or are at the threshold of doing so. We have talked quite a lot, and rightly so, about early intervention and school, but the moment comes when the child moves beyond those things or is on that threshold. We have to do this. Ireland has signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We actually have an obligation to do this, not that we should need a UN convention to tell us to do the right thing - we should just do it because it is the right thing to do.
I am not an expert on these things, but I am aware of a situation that sheds light on this issue. It may not provide all the answers, but I got an astonishing response on it. A person from my constituency who was studying psychology and wanted to work in precisely this kind of area, caring for the vulnerable, contacted me. She was trying to do a doctorate in psychology and described to me the extraordinary difficulty she is having, as a person from a relatively modest background who does not have a lot of financial means, in progressing to the point where she has a doctorate and can work in this area, providing supports to children such as these. I raised that issue in the House and it went viral. I have not received as much communication on an issue for years. So many people out there said this woman was absolutely right.
There are loads of young people who want to work in these areas but it is being made so difficult to do so, even at the level of getting a doctorate, that they all go off to Germany, Utrecht or Belgium to study. Many of them do not come back because they do not have to pay fees there and the accommodation is affordable, whereas here in Ireland it is made difficult for them. They cannot afford to live here. They want to work here and help young and vulnerable children, as well as older vulnerable people, but they cannot do so. They are qualified and intelligent and they do not want to leave this country but we are not able to retain them because life is made so difficult for them. Surely we should be able to put all the talent and human ability we have in this country that could meet the needs of those vulnerable children and other vulnerable people to that use. It should not be rocket science, yet there is a failure to do it. That brings in another Department, namely, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, which is potentially another silo, unless we can join these things up. In theory, the Bill is about trying to join a couple of dots, so my party and I will support it, but the Minister hears what I am saying. I hope he hears what I am saying about the particular case I have raised and will respond on it.
