Sir, – I read with sadness the article citing Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, calling for increased Tusla funding in Budget 2027.
As a recently retired professional from Tusla’s Child Protection and Welfare Service and as an Irish taxpayer, I believe this call deserves a more critical examination than it has so far received.
Dr Muldoon frames increased investment as a matter relating to leadership on children’s rights during Ireland’s European Union presidency. It is a compelling argument on the surface. But leadership cannot be measured in budget lines. It must be measured in outcomes – and the outcomes for many children in Tusla’s care remain troubling.
These are children who have already experienced abuse, neglect or family crisis. They are cold, hungry, scared and unsafe. The State is their parent of last resort. Too often, it is failing them.
This is not an opinion – it is documented. Hiqa inspection reports, the work of the Child Law Project and years of Oireachtas scrutiny have consistently highlighted poor outcomes, inadequate placements and accountability failures within the agency. To argue for more public funding without first confronting this record is to put the cart before the horse.
The decline in foster carer numbers and the chronic shortage of residential placements are well known. But the answer cannot simply be to increase the budget of an agency that has yet to demonstrate it spends existing resources effectively.
If placements cannot be found through the foster care system, then Tusla must build and directly staff high-quality statutory children’s homes – properly resourced, independently inspected and publicly accountable. That would be a genuine demonstration of leadership.
I would ask the Ombudsman for Children, whose office exists to hold the State to account on behalf of its most vulnerable young people, to make any advocacy for new funding conditional on measurable improvements in the safety and quality of care.
Anything less risks rewarding failure with resources, while the children who most need protection continue to be let down. – Yours, etc,
JACQUELINE ROCHE,
Enniskerry,
Co Wicklow.