In February last year, Tusla director of services Clare Murphy issued an order to all the regional chiefs in the State child protection agency.
A private company that social workers had previously relied on to oversee access visits between children in care and their parents was not to be used any longer, she decreed.
The company, Supervised Access Ireland, had for years filled a gap by providing a service that the State and family agency did not, but tended to keep a low profile.
In some family law cases, courts can order that visits between children and a parent without custody must be supervised. Supervised Access Ireland emerged as the main company facilitating these visits.
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Former employees said most of the company’s business related to cases where one parent had custody of the children, with fees charged to supervise the court-ordered access visits. The parent with custody would bring the children to a public spot, such as a car park, where they were then brought by a Supervised Access Ireland worker to spend time with the other parent.
About three years ago, Tusla became a much bigger client, increasingly using the company to supervise access visits with parents whose children had been taken into State care. Staff from Supervised Access Ireland — nearly always working alone — would transport children from foster homes to access visits with their parents and take them back afterwards.
The amount Tusla paid Supervised Access Ireland increased from about €50,000 in 2022, to more than €465,000 in 2023, according to figures released to People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy.
Former employees who worked in the company during this period described a lax approach to governance and said they had harboured concerns about shortcomings in the vetting of staff.
Three former staff members who spoke to The Irish Times said they did not believe the company had an office, with business being done over the phone. A training manual directs employees to message managers on WhatsApp or call if there is an issue during a visit. “It was just chaos all the time,” said one former employee.
Internal emails show staff raised serious concerns in late 2023, alleging colleagues were working with children without first being Garda vetted to check for past criminal convictions. In an email dated November 22nd, 2023, one employee said a colleague who had supervised several visits disclosed that they had not completed Garda vetting or child protection training.
“I find this to be a very disturbing development and I am struggling to understand how this can happen with vulnerable children being placed in the care of someone who it appears we did no due diligence on,” the employee wrote.
Robert McCormack (61), owner and chief executive of the company, responded to the email, saying he would investigate the matter thoroughly. The employee who made the complaint also reported concerns to Tusla, sparking alarm within the agency.
Internal Department of Children briefings said an issue with the “Garda vetting and qualifications of staff” in Supervised Access Ireland had come to light after it emerged one of its staff was “non-compliant” with required vetting.
An examination of the firm’s policies and procedures found they were “insufficient” to keep children safe from harm, the department’s briefing stated. Tusla had provided assurances that Supervised Access Ireland “will not be used again in the future”, officials wrote.
On February 15th, 2024, Tusla’s director of services ordered Supervised Access Ireland no longer be used to facilitate visits with “immediate effect”.
The company is registered to an address in a business development in Bailis Village, Navan, Co Meath. Mr McCormack previously listed his home address on company records as a property in Alicante, Spain. However, in more recent years, he has provided his address as Bailis Village.
[ Watchdog calls for ‘urgent’ overhaul of placements for vulnerable childrenOpens in new window ]
Mr McCormack did not respond to questions about vetting shortcomings and other criticisms of the company.
Further correspondence shows complaints were made to Tusla and the department about the firm as far back as 2018. A mother complained that she was not provided with any details of a supervisor’s qualifications or what they looked like, before handing her two children over for an access visit with their father.
“As my daughter has complex medical needs and is non-verbal I wanted to know what experience if any he had with children like this. The agency Supervised Access Ireland refused to provide [me] with these details. They also refused to verify that this person was Garda vetted,” she wrote. The correspondence was sent to then-minister for children Katherine Zappone, with a complaint also made to Tusla.
Tusla reviewed the company’s child protection policies on paper at the time and following “minor amendments” deemed them to be in line with requirements, said an agency spokesman.
The spokesman said he could not comment on vetting issues in Supervised Access Ireland, other than to confirm Tusla had stopped using its services. “In a small number of cases, Tusla uses external private providers, such as supervision/access centres, often on direction of the court. Where Tusla engages such services, the conditions to be met are outlined to ensure they are compliant with Tusla standards,” he said.
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