The Ombudsman for Children has said that the State is failing vulnerable young people in its care, describing conditions and details revealed by RTÉ Investigates as "stomach-churning".
Niall Muldoon said the programme 'Inside the Care System' highlighted his previously held concerns about children being placed in unregulated accommodation on which the State now spends millions annually.
He called for an immediate ban on such placements, known as Special Emergency Arrangements (SEAs), warning that children’s rights are being "damaged and violated".
The programme documented the story of several young people who had come through the State’s child care protection system, some having experienced abuse, mistreatment or exploitation while in the care of the State.
"It's absolutely horrible to see it in real life and in that detail," Mr Muldoon told RTÉ's Prime Time programme, "and your heart breaks for those young people because we as a State are their parents".
"If we were living in a neighbourhood where we saw a parent that allowed the child to have drug-taking, allowed the child to be exposed to sexual assault, allowed the child to live in a place with nothing but McDonald's for six months, we would report them," he said.
"They would possibly be looking at criminal charges for neglect," he added, "but that's our State that's doing that, and that's really heartbreaking to see."
Mr Muldoon urged Minister for Children Norma Foley to introduce an outright ban on such special emergency arrangements through forthcoming legislation.
"They definitely need to be banned, and we should be able to do that. I heard Minister Foley saying something about moving that in that direction, I would ask her to do it now," he said.
"The Childcare Act Amendment Act is coming in next month. It would be easy to put a prohibition into law to make sure this never happens again, because it's one thing to say they're going to move towards stopping it, you need to ban it completely."
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Members of the judiciary, as well as others working in the care system, have previously raised concerns of emergency placements for children in care.
"I can't see how this can be allowed to go on. This has to be a turning point," Mr Muldoon said, warning a failure to act could expose the State to future legal claims.
"If we don't do something now, these children will be back and rightly looking for compensation for how they've been treated.
"We cannot have another four or five years of this sort of behaviour when we are the ones who are supposed to be upholding their rights, and everywhere you turn, their rights have been damaged and violated."
In a statement issued following the broadcast of the RTÉ Investigates programme, Tusla's CEO Kate Duggan said the experiences described were "not acceptable" and acknowledged challenges in delivering appropriate levels of care.
"Unfortunately, there are times where we are challenged to provide the level of support or intervention that we would want for some young people, and this is a great cause of concern for me, and for the dedicated and hard-working colleagues working with these young people every day."
Care crisis: Sleeping rough in a car park below Tusla offices
