Delivering on the services surrounding Irish children in care overseas

The overseas placement of Irish children will continue, writes Noel Baker. It’s time to ensure the ‘before’ and ‘after’ services deliver.

MOST boys in the latter years of primary school are interested in kickabouts, or riding their BMX, maybe building a den. Not this boy.

“He tried to commit suicide,” his mother says. He tried to do it front of her. “At [that age] you wouldn’t expect that,” she says. He told her that voices in his head were telling him to harm himself and worse. She now believes he had a breakdown. She called the GP, but he had gone home, and tried a clinic, but nobody was answering. She straightened the boy out and put him in the shower.