Andrews meets with senior HSE officials over child welfare concerns

THE Minister for Children Barry Andrews has met with senior Health Service Executive officials to discuss child welfare and protection services after ongoing cracks in services for children in care emerged during the week.

Yesterday the Irish Examiner revealed details of investigations into 19 allegations against foster carers in the Dublin North West and North Central areas, some of which were of a sexual nature. Fine Gael’s spokesman on children Alan Shatter said the revelations demonstrated how vulnerable children were being let down by the state.

“I think it’s absolutely clear that both the Government, successive ministers for children and the HSE have utterly failed to ensure that we have a fully functional child protection service that gives children the protection to which they’re entitled,” he said on Newstalk Radio. Labour said the reports show the state care system is “fundamentally dysfunctional” and pointed to the case of one teenager in care who was effectively abandoned in an internet cafe because the HSE could not find appropriate accommodation. During the week, correspondence obtained by the Irish Examiner revealed ongoing breaches of child care regulations in relation to placement of children with unapproved foster carers and failure to allocate each child in care a social worker.