Carol Nolan: Calls for TSLA inquiry over child protection failures
Carol Nolan addresses the Dail to highlight serious failures in child protection and urges an independent inquiry into TSLA after disturbing findings in the SERP report and recent cases. She supports protective measures in the bill but says expanding TSLA's powers without reform would put vulnerable children at further risk.
Carol Nolan details allegations of systemic failure within TUSLA citing the alleged rape of a 10-year-old in state care at City West and the UCD SERP report titled Protecting Against Predators. She questions how children in state guardianship are being left exposed to grooming and exploitation.
Nolan explains that the SERP report by UCD academics documents organised groups targeting and sexually exploiting children in state care. She says the report's findings have not been adequately addressed and demands that the disturbing evidence be fully examined.
While Nolan supports the bill's protective aims, she insists any expansion of TUSLA powers must be matched by radical reform, transparency, independent oversight, better resourcing and rigorous vetting of placements. She calls for a full public inquiry into TUSLA and the SERP findings without delay.
Nolan warns that continuing to ignore these problems will leave vulnerable children at risk and amount to a betrayal of the most vulnerable. She urges the Minister to confront these uncomfortable truths and deliver decisive action rather than fine words.
Immediate concerns
Carol Nolan details allegations of systemic failure within TUSLA citing the alleged rape of a 10-year-old in state care at City West and the UCD SERP report titled Protecting Against Predators. She questions how children in state guardianship are being left exposed to grooming and exploitation.
SERP report and evidence
Nolan explains that the SERP report by UCD academics documents organised groups targeting and sexually exploiting children in state care. She says the report's findings have not been adequately addressed and demands that the disturbing evidence be fully examined.
Demands for action
While Nolan supports the bill's protective aims, she insists any expansion of TUSLA powers must be matched by radical reform, transparency, independent oversight, better resourcing and rigorous vetting of placements. She calls for a full public inquiry into TUSLA and the SERP findings without delay.
Consequences and accountability
Nolan warns that continuing to ignore these problems will leave vulnerable children at risk and amount to a betrayal of the most vulnerable. She urges the Minister to confront these uncomfortable truths and deliver decisive action rather than fine words.
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Transcript
Thank you, Comhairle. There are, on paper, positive steps. We must always strive to put the welfare of the child first in our laws. However, I must speak plainly. Many people across this country will find it profoundly galling that TSLA, the very agency entrusted with child protection, is being further empowered and charged with making these orders. When it stands accused of being institutionally unfit for the task it already has, and there are many, many serious questions over TSLA, I certainly would have no confidence in them as a public representative. Time and time again, we have seen failures that should shake the confidence of every parent and every child and every citizen in this country. Just last year, there was the horrific alleged rape of a 10-year-old child in the care of the state at City West, a young girl who was under TSLA's guardianship. That's the fact of the matter. She absconded and was allegedly assaulted in circumstances that raise the most serious questions about supervision, placement safety and basic duty of care. How does a child in state care end up in such danger? This was not an isolated tragedy. It is in fact symptomatic of a deeper systemic problem within the system. And let us not forget the ongoing scandal that I have consistently highlighted in this House, which in my mind hasn't been dealt with appropriately or effectively at all. The findings of the SERP report were very, very disturbing. They came from UCD academics. The title of the report was Protecting Against Predators. There's serious questions in that, serious questions for TSLA and they have not been adequately dealt with. And I think this state really should hang its head in shame that it hasn't adequately dealt with this when the facts are laid bare and the evidence is laid bare within that SERP report. That report clearly laid bare how predatory gangs, often organised groups of men, are targeting and sexually exploiting vulnerable children, particularly girls, while they are under the care of TSLA and that's under the state's watch. Children coerced into sexual acts in exchange for gifts, preyed upon because of their vulnerability, their instability and the gaps in the system meant to protect them. This is grooming and exploitation on a scale that should, should demand a full public inquiry urgently and it should demand decisive action because the report is very disturbing. Yet the response has been nothing short of criminally inadequate. Minister, this bill is about protecting children from the influence of those guilty of major crimes and that is certainly right and necessary. But even as we debate these measures here today, unknown quantities of vulnerable children remain in the care of the state, in the care of TSLA, acting as the state guardian and they are being failed day in and day out and young girls are being raped and exploited day in, day out under this state's watch. Children going missing from placements, children exposed to exploitation and children whose basic safety cannot be guaranteed and yet you want to give them more power even though there are serious questions hanging over them already. It doesn't make sense to me. The state has taken on the role of parent for these boys and girls yet too often it fails in that most fundamental duty. We cannot pass legislation that expands TSLA's role without simultaneously demanding radical reform, accountability and transparency and a proper inquiry. We need independent oversight, proper resourcing of frontline staff, rigorous vetting of placements and a zero tolerance approach to failures that put children at risk. The public rightly expects that when the state removes a child from their family it provides something better, something more stable and not a new set of dangers. I support the bill's protective aims but I urge the Minister to address these uncomfortable truths about TSLA. Our children deserve far more than fine words and amended legislation. They deserve a child protection system that adequately protects them. Anything less is a betrayal of the most vulnerable in our society and it is neglect. So I'm asking once again for the findings, the disturbing findings in the SERP report which was compiled by UCD academics to be looked at and for TSLA to be brought to an inquiry as soon as possible because it has to be, it has to be. It is going to be a big scandal in years to come, there's no doubt about that and I think by ignoring it it's making it worse and certainly it's making the suffering more unbearable for all of those victims, mainly girls.