Lack of funding is not the reason Ireland is experiencing huge deficits in how vulnerable children are cared for, the Taoiseach has said.
Leo Varadkar was commenting on issues facing the under-pressure child and family agency Tusla.
Earlier this month, a retired judge said Tusla is at crisis point due to a shortage of suitable placements and qualified staff.
The former District Court judge Dermot Simms wrote to Government Ministers and State agencies to express his “utmost concern” for minors in the care of the State – and said Ireland is likely to face future claims for failing to comply with its duty to those children.
Last week the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) published a critical report into the Separated Children Seeking International Protection service, which is provided by Tusla.
The inspection focused on governance, children’s rights, the quality and safety of child protection and welfare services that unaccompanied children received – and found it was not compliant across all 10 standards assessed.
Due to staffing challenges last year, there was “a crisis response” focusing on unaccompanied children’s basic care needs and accommodation rather than on their wider protection and welfare needs, it said.
Mr Varadkar acknowledged the pressure Tusla is under but said the problems cannot be readily resolved just by diverting more money to the agency or passing new laws.
“There are lots of very good things about being a child in Ireland,” he said.
“We have one of the best education systems in the developed world and some of the best outcomes for children when it comes to things like literacy. Even if you look at areas like paediatric healthcare, there are very good outcomes and very low levels of infant mortality in Ireland, for example. So there are lots of very good things about being a child in Ireland.
“But there are also huge deficits as well.
“No politician is unaware or unaffected by the fact that so many people, so many parents, can’t get the therapies that their children need.”
Mr Varadkar said the Government will publish its Disability Action Plan in the coming weeks and additional placements are being created in the healthcare professions to train more people.
He added: “Tusla is under a lot of pressure. There are just more children than in the past whose parents aren’t able to look after them anymore and the increasing issue of migrant children and unaccompanied children arriving into the state that need our help. That is a real challenge. It is something that we are very much across.
“Like a lot of things, if it was about signing a cheque or a statutory instrument, we would do it in the morning. But it’s not. It is about finding appropriately skilled people, setting them up properly and then making sure that policies are implemented and standards are upheld.
“That is often the trickiest part, but it is something we take very, very seriously.”
