Outgoing Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan recently launched her final annual report, 10 years after becoming Ireland’s first Children’s Ombudsman. She took the opportunity to address the work of the Office, the plight of children in direct provision and the role of An Garda Siochána in child protection.
Speaking at the report’s launch, Ms Logan expressed her concerns about children in Direct Provision, with around 1600 children currently living in Ireland’s direct provision system, a network of short term accommodation for asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their future. The Ombudsman said it was wrong that children were growing up in direct provision, with the average stay in direct provision lasting four years. The reports opening remarks comment that; “one of the recurring themes of the past decade is the inflexibility of systems to meet the needs of individual children” and this has been especially true of children living in direct provision. The report questioned the exclusion of the Children’s Ombudsman from investigating issues related to asylum and immigration. The Department of Justice had not accepted that the OCO can address these types of cases within the statutory complaints-handling framework. Ms Logan said she was able to use her powers to investigate issues such as education and healthcare for children who are also asylum seekers.
Earlier this month it was reported that young asylum seekers who had obtained scholarships for further education were being moved to direct provision centres in areas several hours away from their intended colleges. The Reception and Integration Agency is jointly responsible with the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) for making decisions about moving young asylum seekers, and commented that it had been advised by Tusla that it did not keep statistics on ‘the individual educational journeys’ of children in care. Click here to read an Irish Times article about the issue.
Ms Logan also used the opportunity to comment on the new Independent Policing Authority and recommended that her successor be given a role in the Authority. She is concerned that the issue of neglect and child protection deserves more attention from An Garda Síochána, and involvement of the new Ombudsman would help strike this balance. Ms Logan was last year given special powers to investigate the conduct of Gardaí in their handling of emergency removal of Roma children from their families. She expressed concerns that Gardaí are not accountable for decisions made under these powers of removal and reiterated the need for enhanced transparency through external and independent audits.
In its ten years since being established the office of the Children’s Ombudsman has dealt with over 10,000 complaints from children and families, which includes a 16% increase in complaints last year. Ms Logan has been the sole office holder for the ten years of the OCO, and will shortly be leaving to take up the position of Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
Click here to read the full 2013 Ombudsman for Children annual report.
Click here for an Irish Times report on the report’s publication.