Childcare needs to be removed from the ambit of the Health Service Executive as it is no longer “fit for purpose”, Fine Gael’s Charlie Flanagan said today.
The party's spokesman on children said HSE’s “ongoing failure” to respond to concerns of the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) in respect of the safety of children in foster care shows the executive is “failing in its core duties and impervious to complaints”.
“It is now clear that the HSE is totally out of control,” he added.
Labour’s Roisín Shortall said “hardly a month can pass” without the HSE becoming embroiled in new controversy over child protection services.
She said the HSE’s defence that it could not fully comply with regulations and standards for children in care due to legacy issues emerged before the executive was established, ”is ridiculous”.
“Surely the most urgent issues, like those relating to the welfare of vulnerable children, should have been prioritised,” she added.
Both Mr Flanagan and Ms Shortall were speaking after The Irish Times reported today that the HSE had been accused of a potential "dereliction of duty" over the safety of children in foster care by the State's independent health service watchdog.
After highlighting major concerns over the safety of children in foster care in parts of Dublin last year, the Hiqa told the HSE in recent weeks its “grave concerns” have not been properly addressed.
The issues highlighted included children in unsafe placements for long periods of time, missing files, failing to assess foster carers and more than 100 child protection concerns not being responded to.
In addition, some children had not had any contact with a social worker for up to a decade or more.
The authority’s chief executive Dr Tracey Cooper said despite numerous assurances from the HSE over several months, the executive was still failing to adequately safeguard children in foster care.
In a letter to head of the HSE Prof Brendan Drumm on May 13th last, Dr Cooper said the authority’s findings indicated a “potential dereliction of duty by the HSE in discharging its statutory duties” in relation to children in foster care in Dublin North West and North Central. She added: “It is a fundamental duty of the HSE in relation to the protection of children that their health and welfare is safeguarded. This fundamental duty is, in our view, not being adequately discharged in relation to child-protection issues identified.”
In follow-up letters to Prof Drumm in late May and early June, Dr Cooper repeated the authority’s belief the HSE was still not safeguarding children effectively in these areas.
In response, Prof Drumm acknowledged services in parts of Dublin and the rest of the country had not yet reached the required standard. But he said all concerns raised by Hiqa had been dealt with fully or were being dealt with by local managers.