National attention should be firmly fixed on the revelations that vulnerable young people in the care of State agency Tusla are being raped and sexually exploited, the Dáil has heard.
Independent TD Mattie McGrath, speaking on Tuesday evening, slammed the “charade” of reviews and probes taking place over the RTÉ scandal, while less attention is being paid to the “explosive” paper Protecting Against Predators: A Scoping Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People in Ireland, which was published at the end of June.
The paper, by Dr. Mary Canning and Ruth Breslin of UCD, found that vulnerable children in care in Ireland are clearly being targeted for sexual exploitation and abuse by “gangs of predatory men,” a stark new report from UCD has revealed.
It reported numerous cases where girls in the care of Tusla, the State’s child and family agency, were “being coerced or enticed to provide sex acts to multiple men in exchange for a variety of goods” including clothes and jewellery.
Predatory gangs of men would identify residents where girls in care are being accommodated — and would wait around accommodation centres, even going so far as to wait in hotel lobbies where under-age girls were staying.
In one shocking revelation, the study revealed that men were “hanging around hotel lobbies” in order to sexually exploit children that were being accommodated there as a temporary State care solution.
The report expressed fears that sexual exploitation of children is going “under the radar” in Ireland, while drawing parallels with child sex abuse that went on in Rotherham and Rochdale in the UK – which was characterised by a failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse that took place from the 1980s until the late 2010s.
Deputy McGrath was speaking as TD’s made statements about the ongoing controversy at RTÉ, just before news broke that an additional number of barter accounts – the same type operated to facilitate undisclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy – were being used by RTÉ.
The Tipperary TD said he had “no faith whatsoever” into the Oireachtas Media Committee which is currently ongoing.
“On this charade of scoping reviews and probes, external reviews and senior forensic accountants, some of these same accountants were involved and advised us that the banking system was in pristine condition hours before the banks collapsed. I have no faith whatsoever in this charade. What we should be talking about are the evictions, the horror of homelessness and all the other savage attacks on our people,” he said.
“RTÉ set the tone for presidential elections. It chose what candidates were elected and what questions were asked of them. It interfered in referendums. It was not independent. It is scandalous. Then, it rolled out these sideshows every night with other ex-RTÉ people. Some of the new NGOs and woke people want to change us all and tell us we are all backward people. We must be forward-thinking. They tell us lies and play all their charades,” he continued.
Turning attention to the UCD paper, which detailed cases of girls in care in Ireland being taken to hotels by men to be sexually abused and exploited, with both professionals and hoteliers feeling unable to properly identify or stop the exploitation, Deputy McGrath said such revelations were “more disturbing” and merited attention.
‘IT IS A CHARADE’
“What people should be talking about is the explosive paper that was published last week that said our most vulnerable young people are being raped and sexually exploited by gangs of predatory men and it is happening while they are in the care of Tusla, the State agency charged with keeping our children safe,” he said.
“It is a shocking indictment. On the same day everyone was agog at the RTÉ saga, far more disturbing revelations were being made in a scoping report called Protecting Against Predators: A Scoping Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People in Ireland – my God, there are different types of predators everywhere – that outlined what is happening to children, which is what these girls are, at the hands of sick, evil perverts of men and predatory males.
“Vulnerable children in care in Ireland are clearly being targeted for sexual exploitation and abuse by gangs of predatory men, as that new report from University College Dublin, UCD, has revealed, and it barely gets a mention.
“We are here merrily dancing around – he stepped out, I stepped in again, Lanigan’s Ball, Finnegan’s Ball. To hell with the ball, the ball is over. They have dropped the ball. They embraced every kind of thing that went against ordinary families who are struggling to pay licences and keep themselves in jobs. It is a charade.”
‘TERRIFYING, DEEPLY DISTURBING AND SICKENING’
Last week, his colleague in the Rural Independent Group Carol Nolan TD expressed similar sentiments, saying that TDs had been “distracted” by the “farce at RTÉ” while the devastating report was published.
She described the findings of the report as alarming, and said she would “go as far as to say they are terrifying, deeply disturbing and sickening”.
The Laois Offaly TD said that Tusla, the State’s child and family agency, had “failed at a catastrophic level” to protect children from sexual exploitation.
“Clearly, the procedures against child sexual exploitation introduced by Tusla in recent years have failed miserably. They have failed at a catastrophic level for these children who are being groomed and exploited by gangs of predatory men.”
She continued: “Will the Government commit to providing every resource necessary to further the research that is being carried out? Will it stand ready to demand accountability from Tusla or any other agency that has failed these children in the worst possible way?”