“I FEEL SICK to my very stomach that we only get a debate on child protection when it is in the context of the political events that have happened in the last two weeks,” Aontú leader Peadar Toíbín told the Dáil this afternoon. 

The decision to carve out time in the Dáil schedule came at the behest of government parties who demanded Sinn Féin clarify the issues surrounding two references being given by former party press officers to their colleague Michael McMonagle after he was under investigation for child abuse offences.

Since then, more controversies within the Sinn Féin party have emerged, with TD Brian Stanley resigning and a former senator being named in the Dáil today by Mary Lou McDonald for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a 17-year-old.

There was a hyper atmosphere in Leinster House today, with those on the government benches relishing the downward spiral Sinn Féin now finds itself in.  

There were hard-hitting statements from Minister of State Anne Rabbitte and Colm Brophy, who rounded on Sinn Féin and their handling of the controversies. 

McDonald was on the defensive, accusing the government parties of hypocrisy. 

But between the jabs and punches both sides were trying to land on one another, the chance of a serious debate was lost. 

In fact, it should be noted that rather than having a full house for the entirety of the debate, McDonald left the chamber after she read out her pre-prepared statements, while the government benches also emptied out once the political controversies had been talked about. 

Protecting children, particularly those in the most vulnerable situations, is probably one of the most important discussions that politicians could have in the Dáil. 

Criticisms of political point-scoring

Some members of the opposition said the debate was being lowered to the level of political point-scoring. 

A number of politicians, such as Toíbín, knowing well that the government parties would have the criticism of Sinn Féin well covered, instead chose to use their time highlighting some important facts and the gaps in child protection services. 

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said it was shameful that only political scandals within Sinn Féin can get a debate on the issue of child protection, stating that the topic was being used as a “political football”.

“Most people around the country are quite unhappy to see that this is how this issue is being treated. I am not interested in engaging in that. I am interested in raising some serious issues of child protection that are the responsibility of this Government,” he added. 

Toíbín said that while a number of government politicians were “chomping at the political bit” to get a dig in across the chamber, he pointed to a number of failings and concerns relating to child protection. 

These included: 

• Statistics showing nearly 200 children either in state care or known to the state have died in the past decade, with 38 children dying by taking their own life. Of the 200, 11 of those deaths were murders.
• Concerns about the sexual exploitation of children in state care. 
• The number of children who are being referred to Tusla on an annual basis is at 100,000, which is double that it was in 2018.
• Special emergency accommodation arrangements, which are unregulated accommodation setups being used by Tusla to accommodate children in state care, not having the appropriate vetting in place for those that work there. 

Meanwhile, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy had earlier paid tribute to Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman for not engaging in the high drama through his opening speech, but added that that approach of not using this issue as a political football lasted for as long as the minister was speaking. 

Much like Tóibín, Murphy said he wasn’t interested in engaging in that, but said he wanted to raise some very serious issues of child protection that are the responsibility of the government.

Issues he raised included:

• How the Ombudsman for Children said last July that the state should ask itself how it has fallen so far that it is unable to provide a highly vulnerable child in the care of the state with a safe and stable place to live, a social worker, a trusted adult that they know will care for them.
• The Child Law Project, which reports on child and family law cases usually closed to the public, ending and with no funding yet being provided to restart it. (Though the minister said today that he has requested for a tender for the extension of the project to be expedited)
• Judges speaking in court cases of their despair over the lack of appropriate places for children in care, stating that this is having a domino effect that risks collapsing the care system.
• How 166 minors, including babies, have been left in unsuitable private accommodation and how in some cases, conditions are so bad that charity workers and social workers have been left in tears after visiting the children.
• How Ireland is the only European country to have no public supervised access service and how it is exclusively provided by private companies.

Murphy said the government knows about all this. “This is not news,” he said. 

“If the government is serious about child protection and is not just using it as a political football to score points, it must actually act to fix the broken child protection system,” said Murphy.

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“These statements on child protection should not go by without us actually making statements on child protection,” Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns also said in the Dáil today. 

She said the State has a history of failing to protect children, referring to the horrific legacy of industrial schools, mother and baby homes and abuse by religious orders in schools.

“The Government continues to fail in its duty,” she said, highlighting the significant staff shortages in Tusla, which Cairns said results in at-risk children continuing to be failed by the State.

Issues she raised included, again, the shutting down of the Child Law Reporting project, and: 

• A Hiqa report published a few months ago found that children’s care services did not have sufficient staff numbers to provide adequate services to vulnerable young people.
• A High Court judge warning that nothing is being done about the crisis in our care system, predicting a tsunami of cases. 
• A case of a 16-year-old wheelchair user who has to sleep in the sitting room and use a commode because the doors in his house are not wide enough. 

The point was repeatedly made that there was a €24 billion surplus this year but children continue to be failed in many instances. 

So, yes, political high drama playing out in the Dáil always gets attention. 

The death and sexual exploitation of children, the crippling of the care system, unregulated accommodation used to house teens. Not so much. 

Which is why today was a bit of a missed opportunity all round.