Sharon Keogan: Were unaccompanied minors left exposed?

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]And I honestly want to wish you the best luck, but you know, I have serious issues with with Tusla and and Kate will be familiar with some of the stuff that I brought up over the years.

[00:00:09]There's one particular case that I have been working on for over over well over a year, and that is to do with unaccompanied minors.

[00:00:20]And and this is what I want you to do. I want you to be better at what we do.

[00:00:24]There was a case in May 2022 where we had obviously with the Ukrainian war, we had a charity that took in 113 adults, and there was 59 of those children that were unaccompanied. So obviously they just landed into the airport. Tusla had no idea that they were coming, and on the spot guardianship was given to some of the adults that were on the same flight as those children. On the spot guardianship.

[00:01:00]There was no involvement with Tusla in relation to the vetting. You seem to have washed your hands off it. You didn't even get None of these children were looked after by Tusla at all.

[00:01:10]You've wiped your hands clean of it. So there was no investigating in relation to the the vetting of the families that the children went to.

[00:01:23]Um So my question is should that happen again? And should children land in in large numbers, even six or eight children come in, unaccompanied minors come in on a on a given day.

[00:01:39]How How are you going to handle that in the future?

[00:01:46]>> I can't comment on the particular case.

[00:01:47]Um >> But do you think Do you think that's right? Do you think that on the spot guardianship should have be should be given to children that arrive in unaccompanied minors?

[00:01:57]Should that be the way things run?

[00:01:59]>> That's something I know.

[00:02:00]>> Yeah.

[00:02:01]>> I'm very familiar with the case that you We were actually in here in the Oireachtas when we came out and and got the phone call to say that's that's because I I think there's only happened to once we're referring to the same issue.

[00:02:12]>> It could happen again.

[00:02:13]>> It It could, but my understanding is that nobody knew across government that this was happening and this was a private arrangement and that the, you know, individual parents of those children gave permission for the adults on the group to be the guardians for their children. It was a time of significant crisis in Ukraine.

[00:02:32]>> That's not what happened.

[00:02:33]>> it.

[00:02:34]Sorry, in terms of it was never referred to to us. I'm not very happy to see you on that particular issue, but my recollection of of the event was that parents wanted to get their children, you know, out of of Ukraine and there was an opportunity through this mission.

[00:02:49]And that they had already made private arrangements with with families in in the particular part of the country in terms of of, you know, kind of respite and and holiday break. But certainly I'm not familiar with the particular case, but delighted to talk to you offline on it.

[00:03:04]>> Yeah, but some of those children they were obviously moved on then to homes in the the area in Mayo and outside of Mayo and they didn't stay with that guardian that was appointed at the airport after that.

[00:03:21]>> Ríordáin, you know they are not going to be able to talk about specific >> because it will It's It's going to happen again. Because we're dealing We're dealing with war We're dealing with war throughout the world.

[00:03:30]>> Deputy or Senator Ó Ríordáin, you know they cannot talk about specific cases.

[00:03:33]>> that. Yeah.

[00:03:35]I I understand that, but >> You can ask the question >> In the future, should that happen again, Tusla didn't really get involved after that. After that day, there was nothing really that Tusla did in relation to duty of care to those individuals who were in the care.

[00:03:49]>> Deputy you're still talking about a specific case.

[00:03:51]>> I know, but if shouldn't happen again.

[00:03:53]Will Tusla take a more active role in unaccompanied minors coming in to the state in large numbers?

[00:04:00]>> So I have to say Tusla take a completely active role in terms of unaccompanied minors coming to the state. So if you talk, I mean we receive our referrals from the International Protection of the Department of Justice. So yes, so where a young person arrives unaccompanied, it is up to the Department of Justice to complete the age assessment for that young person should they believe them to be a minor. They then refer them to Tusla. And when we get a referral, we act on that referral and that's around determining the safety, to determine are they with an adult, to determine if they need to come into the care of the state and so we have about 130 unaccompanied minors currently who are in the care of the state if it is deemed that they need to come into care.

[00:04:39]And the others were of an appropriate age, you know, almost 17 and and almost 18 that they're being accommodated by us under section 5 of the act. So where Tusla receives referral, that referral is made and we act on that referral in terms of the information available to us to know if support needed or if there's any risk to the the child's safety.

[00:05:00]>> I just feel that those children were let down very badly and that is my opinion.

[00:05:04]Thank you.

[00:05:04]>> Carmichael, deputy, happy to