According to Aontú, the crisis in the Tusla care system is a national scandal

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has long been a pronounced critic of Tusla and consistently campaigned for transparency and reform. The party recently secured documents according to the FOI law of the Freedom of Information (FOI), in particular an e -mail exchange between the Minister for Children and the CEO of Tusla as well as briefing notes from a call between the two on February 21, 2025.

As harmless as it may sound, the documents showed some disturbing problems in the Irish children's aid system, including disturbing statistics on missing children, sexual child abuse and even deaths in state care.

The deputy Tóibín described these results as “extremely alarming” and described the situation as “national scandal”, which must be discussed in Dáil. He emphasized the urgent need to end TuSlas “special emergency agreements”: “The system is crumbling. We need an urgent debate about the well -being of children in nursing.”

The most important revelations from the FOI documents include:

• 37 children who are missing in Tuslas care, 32 of them are refugees or are looking for international protection.
• 161 Transfers since 2021 for children who are suspected of being victims of sexual exploitation of children, with 115 of these children.
• 235 deaths in children in state care or since 2014, who are known to Tusla, including 10 murders and 51 suicides or overdoses of drugs.
• 66 children in hotels in the past 6 months.

However, the criticism of the deputy Tóibín extends beyond these figures and focuses on Tusla's failure to protect children from trade and exploitation, and their disregard for legal obligations, including the non -compliance of the court, were left behind as 250 children without social workers. He also found the immense pressure under which Tusla was demonstrated below 94,000 children last year, even though he overtook his budget for EUR 80 million.

In the documents, State of Tusla since 2002, the number of young people has significantly reduced emergency hotel accommodation to ensure the supervision of employees around the clock. The agency also emphasized its continuing concern about sexual exploitation of children and recognized that children in nursing are particularly susceptible to exploitation, especially through social media.

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