Senator Sharon Keogan has called for Tusla to be abolished amid a string of shocking child exploitation cases.
The Senator today condemned the “moral collapse” of the child protection agency. She demanded that the State body be dismantled over child protection failures, questioning its €1.4 billion budget.
“This is no longer a crisis of funding. This is a total moral collapse,” said the Meath Senator.
“This agency is completely unfit for purpose, entirely rotten, and must be abolished and remade from the ground up.”
“Tusla’s own audit accounts prove that it has become an administrative monster,” said Keogan.
“I wish to rise to address the absolute horrors exposed in the High Court this week regarding Tusla,” said the Independent politician on Wednesday.
The exchange comes one day after the High Court heard that a 16-year-old boy had swallowed 37 wraps of crack cocaine, was using fentanyl and was missing after leaving a Tusla unit when Gardaí arrived.
The judge was critical of Tusla for failing to provide special care, with the court hearing that just 13 of 26 beds were open because of staffing shortages.
The Children’s Rights Alliance also raised concerns about the boy’s safety and welfare.
“We heard of a 16-year-old boy vomiting up nearly 40 bags of crack cocaine, who is still missing, and a 17-year-old girl subjected to industrial-scale sexual exploitation, with taxis picking her up directly from the front door of her State care placement,” said Senator Sharon Keogan.
In the case of the 17 year old girl, a judge said the State agencies need to tackle child exploitation urgently and questioned why Tusla had not sought a special-care order sooner.
“Tusla’s budget has climbed to an unprecedented €1.4 billion. It is a wake-up call that this agency is completely unfit for purpose, entirely rotten, and must be abolished and remade from the ground up.”
Senator Keogan pointed out that Tusla spends over €70 million a year just on office and administration costs, “including over €13 million handed to commercial landlords for rent, and a staggering €43.8 million taken out of child welfare annually to fund skyrocketing legal fees.”
“Meanwhile, the safety net has collapsed.
Half of our 26 special-care beds are locked shut because Tusla cannot safely staff them,” said the Senator.
In June 2025, Tusla’s reliance on private providers came to light after a report found that Tusla paid more than €72.5 million to third-party companies providing emergency accommodation for children in State care in 2024.
The 2025 financial statements record €359 million spent on independent placements.
“Instead, this agency pours €38 million into private landlords and hotels through special emergency arrangements, alongside €359 million for independent, for-profit placement providers,” said Keogan.
“Tusla has openly admitted it has no idea how much of that €359 million is being pocketed by private executives as corporate profit, while children are left to the wolves.”
“We are starving the frontline to enrich external asset holders, legal teams and private care companies,” Keogan told the Seanad.
“This is State-sanctioned neglect. Children do not consent to chaos, and they should not be subjected to a system that acts as a conveyor belt for exploitation.”
The Senator insisted, “We don’t need another review, another committee or a policy tweak.”
“We need a Minister, first of all, who comes into this Chamber. She hasn’t appeared in this Chamber for a Commencement Matter since the start of this new session.
“So the Minister needs to step up. She needs to dismantle this failed privatised bureaucracy and build a child-protection system that actually protects people.
“The testimony that Senator [Aubrey McCarthy] gave this morning about the homeless people who are dying on our streets should be enough to bring down this Government.”
“The neglect of our children in State care should be enough to bring down this Government, but it’s not, because they don’t care,” added Senator Keogan.