The Children’s Ombudsman Niall Muldoon has criticised both the HSE and Tusla for not adequately making plans for disabled children in care.

The children's ombudsman has described as “absolutely despicable” the length of time it took to set up the country's first multi-agency centre for sexually abused children.

Dr Niall Muldoon is extremely critical of the state's failure to put in place an initiative that was first suggested more than five years ago.

Safeguards must be put in place around the use of reduced timetables, which are a “daily reality for many vulnerable students” that disproportionately affect the most marginalized, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

Schools may be inappropriately using reduced timetables as informal suspensions to deal with behaviour deemed difficult to manage in the classroom, the Ombudsman for Children has warned.

The Office of the Ombudsman received more than 150 complaints from people living in direct-provision centres last year.

The state’s most vulnerable children are not benefiting from the economic upturn and use of words like “inclusiveness” and “equality” are sometimes little more than lip service, according to the Ombudsman for Children.

“We can no longer allow our children to live with the overwhelming feelings of shame, guilt and anger because they are homeless, through no fault of their own.”

Tusla, the child and family agency, has admitted there is “work yet to be completed” when it comes to comprehensive supports for children with disabilities in care after it and the HSE were criticised by the Ombudsman for Children.

The Child and Family Agency has admitted there is "work yet to be completed" when it comes to comprehensive supports for children with disabilities in care after it and the HSE were criticised by the Ombudsman for Children.

Both the HSE and Tusla are still falling short when it comes to ensuring adequate services and supports for children with disabilities in the care of the State — a year after a critical report highlighted inadequacies in one particular case.

The Ombudsman for Children has said he will watch to ensure commitments made about the education of Syrian refugees in special reception centres around the country are met.

Five of Ireland’s well-known figures discuss where they holidayed as children, whether the memories are all good, and where they’re going now. By Arlene Harris.

A lack of sensitivity and use of confusing clinical language are among the challenges identified by young people using mental health services, according to a new report from the Ombudsman for Children.

Children are being let down by public bodies such as the HSE and Tusla who fail to keep their best interests at heart and by a mental health service where psychiatrists are not routinely available to suicidal young people.

A 24-hour social work service is a critical requirement for children in need, according to the ISPCC.

Niall Muldoon looks at child protection in other jurisdictions and learns how it is vital to unify activities between law enforcement and social work

Is childhood a thing of the past? Seems so, when the Children’s Rights Alliance is in favour of the Government’s decision to set the so-called digital age of consent at “the lowest age possible” which in this case is 13 years.

Children’s rights groups have warned that many families still have to “fight the system” every day to secure adequate services, just as the foster carers of a girl abandoned at birth vied to get the full range of supports she needed.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, is to undertake a systemic review of the supports and services being offered to children in their care with a moderate to severe disability, following an investigation by the Ombudsman for Children.

Concerns expressed by the Child and Family Agency Tusla about mandatory reporting are “predictable and understandable”, a social work expert has said.

Children forced from their home by domestic violence were homeless for two years, during which they slept on blood-stained mattresses and found themselves in accommodation where they were exposed to their mother’s ex-partner or his friends, an investigation by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office has found.