Mary Lou McDonald: Forged References Put Children at Risk
Mary Lou McDonald confronted the Taoiseach over a new scandal: forged staff references for special emergency accommodation that have put vulnerable children at risk. She says the crisis is rooted in a chronic shortage of foster carers and regulated care placements and demands accountability now.
Mary Lou McDonald highlighted reports that forged references were used to staff special emergency accommodation for children. She warned these settings are unregulated, poorly resourced and uninspected, and that children placed there have been put in harm's way.
McDonald noted more than a thousand children were placed in such unregistered facilities last year while the State paid significant sums to private operators. She traced the problem to a severe shortage of foster carers and regulated care home placements, a shortage she says government allowed to develop.
Mary Lou McDonald pressed the Taoiseach for a clear response and for measures to ensure accountability. The speech calls for urgent action on recruitment, regulation and inspection to prevent further failures in the care of vulnerable young people.
The intervention frames this scandal as symptomatic of broader failures in child protection and social care policy. McDonald demands concrete, enforceable steps to regulate emergency accommodation, strengthen oversight and invest in long-term foster and residential capacity.
Immediate concern: forged references and unregulated settings
Mary Lou McDonald highlighted reports that forged references were used to staff special emergency accommodation for children. She warned these settings are unregulated, poorly resourced and uninspected, and that children placed there have been put in harm's way.
Scale and cause: thousands affected, millions paid
McDonald noted more than a thousand children were placed in such unregistered facilities last year while the State paid significant sums to private operators. She traced the problem to a severe shortage of foster carers and regulated care home placements, a shortage she says government allowed to develop.
Questions of accountability and next steps
Mary Lou McDonald pressed the Taoiseach for a clear response and for measures to ensure accountability. The speech calls for urgent action on recruitment, regulation and inspection to prevent further failures in the care of vulnerable young people.
Wider implications for child protection policy
The intervention frames this scandal as symptomatic of broader failures in child protection and social care policy. McDonald demands concrete, enforceable steps to regulate emergency accommodation, strengthen oversight and invest in long-term foster and residential capacity.
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Transcript
Taoiseach, this morning we hear of another scandal involving the care of vulnerable children in the state. Forged references provided for staff at special emergency accommodations for children putting vulnerable children in harm's way. These settings as you know are unregulated, poorly resourced, unregistered facilities not inspected by the authorities and yet more than a thousand children were placed in these settings last year and the state pays out literally millions to private operators to run them, all because of a severe shortage of foster carers and regulated care home placements, a shortage by the way that your government allowed to develop. Taoiseach, what is your response to this scandal and how will you ensure accountability for this, just the latest in a long line of such scandals? Thank you Deputy Taoiseach. As I said earlier to Deputy Batchick who raised this issue on leaders questions, we are extremely concerned about this issue of forged letters which is completely unacceptable and very serious in terms of the care of young people who are taken into care. The numbers referred to Toosna have expanded to an extraordinary degree which reflects wider issues within society and of different kinds and so we have substantially increased the funding, we've doubled capital funding and so forth. The recruitment of qualified staff is key and a lot of work has happened in that area in terms of investment in additional grades, improvement and so on and we're going to have to do more on that front and I would pay tribute to a lot of Toosna staff out there who do an awful lot of good work looking after a lot of people who need care and assistance.