Shocking Failures in Tusla’s Care of Vulnerable Children – Aontú Calls for Urgent Action

30.04.2025

Startling information uncovered through Freedom of Information requests has prompted Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín to call for an urgent national debate on child welfare in Ireland. The documents—consisting of internal Tusla correspondence and briefing notes shared with Minister for Children Norma Foley—paint a grim picture of a system struggling to protect the most vulnerable.

According to the material obtained, 37 children are currently missing from Tusla’s care, with 32 of them being unaccompanied minors seeking international protection. The documents also show that since 2021, Tusla has referred 161 children to the Gardaí over suspected cases of child sexual exploitation—a form of human trafficking. Disturbingly, 115 of those children were in Tusla’s care.

Even more harrowing is the report that 235 children in care or known to Tusla have died since 2014, with 10 murdered and 51 lost to suicide or drug overdoses. Additionally, 66 children have been housed in hotels over the past six months, raising serious concerns about the standards and safety of emergency care settings.

Peadar Tóibín expressed grave alarm:

“The high number of children currently missing from State care is extremely alarming. The fact that so many of them are unaccompanied migrant children is particularly worrying.”

He continued:

“The high numbers of children in State care being sexually exploited or trafficked should be a national scandal and should be debated in the Dáil… the most vulnerable children in the State are being left the most exposed to trafficking and exploitation.”

Aontú is demanding accountability and urgent reform.

“It’s clear the system is crumbling,” Tóibín said. “We need an urgent debate on the welfare of children in care. The use, by Tusla, of unregulated ‘Special Emergency Arrangements’ for children must end.”

He concluded with a call for funding to be directed away from unregulated providers and toward vetted, voluntary, and foster care sectors:

“Instead of pumping millions into the unregulated sector, the government need to start supporting and funding the regulated private and voluntary care sectors, and indeed foster families.”