Míle buíochas leis an Teachta Gogarty as ucht an Bhille seo a thabhairt os comhair na Dála. I welcome and thank the Alliance of Birth Mothers Campaigning for Justice for all the work it has done on this issue in recent years. One of the most difficult cases that regularly comes into my office is when a child is taken from their family or parents. That is because the act of forcibly separating a child from a parent is probably one of the most damaging things a State can do, if it is done in the wrong situation. It has an enormous impact on the child and will last with them for the rest of their lives. It also has a harrowing impact on a parent. One of the worst nightmares that could ever face any parent is having their child forcibly taken away from them by the State, especially when you look at what is happening with Tusla. The nightmare was heightened by what we saw on "RTÉ Investigates" just last week. Many children who are in very difficult circumstances and are taken from their parents often find themselves in a situation where they are exposed to rape, sexual exploitation, grooming by drug gangs for the sale of crack cocaine and even killed. The idea that your child would be taken from you is a nightmare of epic proportions in the first instance, but then for them to be given to an organisation that is itself mired in controversy because of the disasters befalling so many children is horrendous. I do not know how I would feel if it happened to my own child. I imagine it would be all-consuming in terms of the stress, pressure, anger and frustration that I would feel. The other aspects of why these cases are so difficult is because it is difficult to determine what the truth is in such situations. Both parents are so emotionally invested in the situation that some parents will do anything to make sure the child is not taken off them. I have dealt with many mothers and some fathers who have been shockingly aggrieved at what has happened to them. One of the issues that has come through is that their voices regarding those grievances are not being heard and that the in camera rule is stifling their ability to seek help or support. One aspect of this is many parents ring me and say that they do not know whether they have the right or ability to speak to me as their TD and converse with me about what is happening to their children because of the in camera rule. Some parents have said they are even afraid to talk to the Garda about their experiences because of the in camera rule. It is nearly seen as a complete block of communication for an individual who is probably in one of the biggest nightmares a parent can be. Tusla has taken children from mothers off the back of false information in the past, and that is absolutely factual. It has had to apologise in certain cases and it has had to return children to those parents. Tusla has placed inaccurate information on mothers' files in certain situations. It has wronged birth mothers on many occasions. The system is failing those mothers especially and they have nowhere to go. I have raised these cases in the Dáil Chamber many times. At the heart of this is the necessity for women and mothers to be listened to and for their grievances to be addressed, and that is not currently happening. We need to amend the Child Care Act 1991 to provide HIQA with the necessary powers to sanction Tusla when it fails to meet the statutory obligations. One of the major problems with the in camera rule is that it prevents accountability. It massively reduces the ability to have public scrutiny of judicial decision making. Most people in the general public would be blind to what is happening in these courts on a daily basis. Some families would go so far as to say that, in their experience, the rule is a gagging order in many ways. There is a necessity for the Minister to seek to reform this system because it is radically broken, extremely damaging to children and phenomenally damaging to parents. I want to make a brief reference to some of the elements that came from the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on Tusla last week. In all of the discussions, it is sometimes forgotten that there are many good workers in Tusla doing the very best they can for children in extremely difficult circumstances. I know of many good workers who are regularly getting burned out. Young people come out of college with all of the necessary zeal and energy to tackle very difficult situations, but because of the pressure they are being put under, they are becoming burned out and leave the sector after a while. One of the reasons we have a shocking mismanagement of Tusla is because, in many ways, the Minister for children is absent without leave. When we have a housing crisis in this country, we have a housing Minister who is regularly questioned and has to be responsible and accountable for what is happening in housing. When there is a crisis in the health service, the Minister for Health is questioned regularly and held responsible for what is happening. However, when there is a crisis in Tusla, the Minister for children is invisible. The only critique I have from the RTÉ show last week is that there was no reference to the Minister. The strategy of the Minister for children when these crises arrive is to be hidden from sight and inaccessible for questioning and accountability. One reason Tusla is falling apart is because we have an absentee Minister for children. The response of the Tánaiste to last week's programme on Tusla was to say that everything was getting better and the special emergency arrangements were reducing in number. He boasted that special emergency arrangements were being closed, as if the Government was proactively seeking to end the practice. The truth is very different. The truth is that special emergency arrangements were closed down not because extra capacity was put into the system, but because documents were falsified. Some five special emergency arrangements were closed because they were referred to the Garda National Vetting Bureau. The Government was putting extremely vulnerable children into special emergency arrangements that are being referred to the Garda National Vetting Bureau. That is a national scandal and the Government used it as an excuse to say it was fixing the problem in the system. The Government has said that the number of special emergency arrangements is falling. Again, this statement is disingenuous, which is just a fancy term for "not telling the truth". The reason the number of children in special emergency arrangements is falling is because the number of unaccompanied minors coming into the system is falling. Those unaccompanied minors who are coming into the system are now being sent to the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, for age verification, as the Minister will know. They are being signposted to a different location, as such. However, the number of Irish children in special emergency arrangements has increased in the past year. The number of children in this country that the Government is exposing to rape, sexual exploitation and becoming drug mules is increasing in real time. That is a national scandal. The Government has said this will be sorted out. The waiting list for the regulated residential sector in this country is 50% of all of the children. These are the children who are in situations where they cannot be put into ordinary foster families. Their situations are very serious. They need residential places, but the waiting list is so long that they makes up 50% of all of the children in the sector. This problem is going nowhere fast because there is a lack of investment in locations and a lack of management. There is a mismanagement problem at the heart of the system. Is it any wonder that mothers and families are living in fear when Tusla seeks to take their children from them and they go into a legal system that has a complete lack of transparency and openness and where their voices are not heard? Is it any wonder that those mothers are living in fear as a result? The Minister has the opportunity to leave a legacy that opens up the process, with voices being heard, children being protected and there being scrutiny and accountability.

Sentiment score: -0.16