LAST UPDATE | 17 Jul 2023

MINISTER FOR FURTHER and Higher Education Simon Harris has said Tusla saying that it is in crisis should stop the Government “in their tracks”.

He added that it highlights to him that the next Budget needs to be centred on child poverty and child wellbeing.

Speaking at the Adult Education Service in Finglas, Minister Harris was responding to a statement from Tusla this morning in which it said it is facing “unprecedented challenges” which place it at “crisis point”.

The Tusla statement came in response to reports released today by the Child Law Project which highlighted issues around safe placements for children in care. 

Harris said the Child Law Project has shone a spotlight on areas where the country “needs to do better”. 

The reports were accompanied by a letter from retired Dublin District Court Judge Dermot Simms who called attention to children in unsuitable emergency placements, as a result of the lack of safe and appropriate places. 

Judge Simms called for “immediate and coordinated action” to remedy the current crisis.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the reports from the Child Law Project are “a matter of deep concern”. 

“It isn’t new to the government in the sense that we’ve had discussions at cabinet sub-committee meetings in recent months around the whole issue of children who are in care, and they need a lot of help,” Varadkar said. 

He noted that the number of children who need to be taken into care has increased “considerably”. 

“Sometimes, parents are dead, sometimes parents are in prison. Increasingly, because of migration, there are [children] that don’t have a family network around them, and increasing numbers of unaccompanied children arriving in Ireland, from Ukraine and elsewhere. 

“So the number of children that the state has to take into care for their own protection has actually increased very substantially, or at least substantially, in recent years,” Varadkar said.

He added that the state has been struggling to respond to this due to a lack of skilled staff with appropriate qualifications but said: “it is something we’re very aware of  and deeply concerned about, and we are actively working on.”

Crisis point

In response to today’s reports, Tusla’s interim CEO Kate Duggan said the reports give a valuable insight into how the childcare system in the courts works.

Duggan said the reports highlight the hard work of Tusla staff across the country but that they also evidence the “crisis point” that Tusla is at.

Duggan outlined the “unprecedented challenges” facing the child protection agency, which include an increasing referral rate and an inadequate supply of emergency, foster and residential care placements.

She also pointed to an increase in the number of separated children seeking international protection, and workforce supply issues, particularly in social work and social care, as challenges facing the agency. 

“We have also noted an increase in the number of children and young people with more complex needs, who also require access to other specialist services, such as disability, mental health, and addiction services to better meet their needs,” Duggan said.

“This increase in demand for services, in the context of wider societal issues such as the housing crisis, global movement, poverty, domestic and gender-based violence, drugs, criminality and exploitation, have placed the agency at a crisis point. 

“However, we continue to work hard to mitigate risks, and to engage with other state agencies and departments, to seek to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society receive a timely and appropriate response,” Duggan said. 

Minister Harris said Duggan’s comments should stop the government in “their tracks“ and described the Tusla statement as “very, very sobering”.

He said it really drives home the point to him that the next Budget “absolutely has to be a Budget about children, about child welfare and about tackling child poverty.”

“The test of Budget 2024 now is going to be how much progress we can make on the societal issues that are causing so much pressure in terms of families,” Harris said.

Harris said he “admires the honesty of Tusla’s statement” this morning and said that: “All too often, state agencies can get overly defensive and issue out a load of waffle trying to talk away the situation. Tusla haven’t done that.”

“What I’m saying to you now is, a few weeks or months out from the next Budget, it places a hugely important focus on having a conversation around child poverty and child wellbeing in Ireland and that’s where we need to be.

“In my heart, it’s child poverty and child wellbeing that needs to be the priority in Budget 2024,” Harris said.

 The Minister however, refused to be drawn on speculation over what will be included in this year’s Budget and would not confirm reports that the Government is considering a one-off double payment of child benefit for parents.

When asked if he was in favour of a return of the €200 energy support payment, the Minister again refused to comment but said in his view the energy credits were “very effective”.

“Certainly there will have to be more measures in the Budget to help people address energy poverty, but the specifics of that will have to wait a few weeks,” Harris said.

The Minister did say that he would like to see more money put back in people’s pockets.

“There’s a number of actions that we need to take in relation to children and in relation to families.

“Many families in Ireland need a bit of assistance, they need some of their own money back. In my view, that’s what a government should do in a cost of living crisis,” Harris said.