Tánaiste Simon Harris has urged the public to be “calm” in the wake of an alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl in State care at Citywest IPAS centre, which he described as “horrifying”.
According to reporting by journalist Paul Healy of the Irish Mirror, it is understood that a 10-year-old Irish girl was allegedly raped on the grounds of the Citywest Hotel, which is currently being used to accommodate asylum seekers. The child is receiving care following the incident.
The suspect is reported to be an adult male African asylum seeker, and the girl is believed to be in the care of Tusla.
The Irish Mirror says the young girl was not residing at the hotel, and investigators are working to establish how she came to be there. Gardaí are questioning the suspect, who has been charged with sexual assault. An Arabic interpreter has been provided to him, and legal aid was granted after the court was told that the accused is not employed.
According to The Irish Times, the suspect arrived in Ireland six years ago and was refused international protection in 2024. The newspaper reports that he has been the subject of a deportation order since March of this year.
Reacting to the situation ahead of this morning’s Cabinet meeting, Tánaiste Simon Harris told the media that it was a “deeply distressing” situation.
“There are a number of profoundly worrying aspects already being discussed in the public domain,” he said.
“It’s important that we have an opportunity, I think, to establish the facts; that the agencies have an opportunity to also present those facts. But this is a deeply distressing, horrifying, shocking situation that is profoundly concerning and raises fundamental questions.
“Including, of course, the well-being of a child who was in care – at least in the care of Tusla based on what I read – and of course the issue that’s been actively investigated by An Garda Síochána. So I think we need to wait for the facts to be established, but profound issues are certainly coming to the fore here.”
The Tánaiste was then asked about people on social media discussing the case and some individuals gathering outside Citywest for a protest, with one journalist saying it could go “in a dark way”. Harris was asked if he would “appeal for calm” in the aftermath of the incident.
“Absolutely,” he replied.
“I mean, the first thing obviously is everybody needs to operate within the parameters of the law, and everybody needs to respect the job that An Garda Síochána are undertaking here in ensuring that facts can be established and that perpetrators can be brought to justice.
“longside that, there are profound issues that will obviously need to be considered, but I think it is really important that there’s an opportunity to establish those facts. This is a horrific event that is only emerging in many ways in the last number of hours, and I would, of course, ask that people allow for facts to be put out there and for facts to be established in the first instance.”
He said that people were “genuinely very concerned and deeply distressed and profoundly worried about the developments that they’ve heard of overnight”, but that “we have to allow the facts to be established.”
“There is an ongoing Garda investigation,” he said.
“The laws of this land are clear. The laws of this land must be enforced. The laws of this land will be enforced.
“Alongside that, there are a number of issues that I’m not yet in a position to comment on today, based on issues that have come to the fore regarding Tusla, regarding a young child, regarding their safety and their well-being, regarding the status of any individual involved in the committing of a potentially extraordinarily serious crime.
“So I would ask people to allow those facts to be established. But I am acknowledging that there are serious and profound issues.
Asked if this would be another case of “lessons will be learned” where the Government expressed concern and then something similar happened again in 6 or 12 months, Harris said “No.”
“But I do want to allow a little bit of time here to actually establish the facts, because I don’t want to say something that turns out to be patently false or wrong in a couple of hours or a couple of days’ time,” he said.
“You couldn’t be a citizen of Ireland and read this case this morning and read the information in the public domain and not be deeply concerned and worried. That’s how I feel. There are a number of changes that we’ve made in a whole variety of areas, but I’m not going to pre-empt that, because even commenting on them is pre-empting where the coming hours and days are going to bring us to.”
He added: “My immediate thoughts, though, of course, are with the young child – just that young child and what that young child must be going through right now. That’s where my thoughts are now. But as a public representative, as a government leader, establishing the facts so that we can work out what happened in this case and what must happen is where the priority needs to be.”
The development comes just days after another fatal case, in which a Ukrainian teenager was discovered with over 100 stab wounds at a Tusla-operated emergency accommodation facility in north Dublin. The victim had arrived in Ireland just four days prior to his death.
Gardaí have detained a male juvenile for questioning on suspicion of murder. The teenager, who is currently receiving medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, was arrested last week.