Fergus Finlay: Ireland’s child protection failures go beyond Tusla — the real issue is political will

Ireland has one social worker per 3,000 people, yet we scapegoat Tusla instead of fixing systemic failures in child protection

Gardaí at the scene in Donabate, Co Dublin during a search for a boy who has not been seen for several years and is feared dead. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

When a child is hurt in Ireland, or something terrible happens, we react in two ways. The first is human, the second is increasingly weird. I’m a father and a grandfather, and when I hear of a child being hurt it physically wrenches. Most of us feel that way. We want to rush in and help in whatever way we can. We hope against hope that it will turn out all right in the end. When it doesn’t turn out all right, we grieve.

But we do something else as well. We hunt for a scapegoat. Especially if there’s any involvement by a State agency, our default reaction is ah hah! This has to be the State agency’s fault.