HSE Foster Home Failures

Speaking as the HSE published two reports into the failures at a foster home in Waterford over three decades:

There are several questions to be answered in relation to this case and I have requested the Minister McGrath to come into the Seanad to answer them. ‘Grace’ and her family and the forty seven intellectually disabled children who suffered deserve answers.

Why was Grace abandoned by those whose duty it was to ensure she received the care she desperately needed as a vulnerable human being and as a citizen of this state.

Who stopped the 2012 Conal Devine Report being published until now – five years later and who stopped the 2015 report being published? We are told it could have been because criminal proceedings may take place. Who has been arrested? How Many files have been sent to the DPP?

I welcome the fact that a commission of Investigation will be set up in the coming weeks but where is the accountability? People are sick and tired of cover up after cover up and fed up of the protection of state institutions being sacrosanct.

There is a vulnerable women at the centre of this scandal and many other vulnerable young people. We know this is by no means an isolated case. The ad hoc approach of state services whether they be provided directly by the state or contracted out to other service providers is an abomination.

I want to commend the young social worker who acted as a whistle blower in this case. The courage and tenacity she has shown in exposing the plight of Grace is laudable. Like Maurice McCabe, I hope her actions serve to encourage others working in state institutions to come forward and expose the scandals and subsequent cover-ups that blight us as a nation.