Holding Tusla to account for its blundering

IMAGINE the shock. Imagine how you would feel if, a decade or two ago, you gave a statement to the Garda Síochána about historical abuse you suffered in a State or religious institution and then, having relieved yourself of the burden of this secret you shared with no one but the relevant authorities, you tried to get on with your life as best as possible.

Imagine then that you now, years later, receive a letter from Tusla, the child protection agency, saying it has been informed of your Garda statement and it wishes to follow up on your case. What if you had never told your wife, your husband, or your children about the abuse, and one of them opens the letter? What if you are a woman who became pregnant as a consequence of rape while still a teenager and signed adoption papers for a baby you never told any family member about?

What, indeed, if you have moved house in the meantime, and a total stranger opens a letter meant for you and finds out about the appalling crimes visited upon you all those years ago?

That is what is happening right now courtesy of Tusla, the child protection agency bedevilled by controversy for its role in the allegedly accidental persecution of Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the Garda whistleblower disgracefully, and entirely wrongly, accused of child abuse.

Dublin City councillor Mannix Flynn, an abuse victim while in his teens, tells today that he received such a letter to an address in Kerry at which he used to live. Fortunately, he still owns the house, so no one else would have seen it, but that surely cannot be true in all cases. To add insult to injury, he was invited to meet with two social workers in Co. Kildare to discuss his abuse. Where is the duty of care here? Imagine men or women from all parts of the country spending a couple of hours reliving the horrors of the past, then being compelled to get back in their cars and drive home, alone, for maybe 200km.

The Charleton Inquiry has been set up to investigate the interaction between the Garda and the media, but surely it must also investigate Tusla, not only for its role in the McCabe scandal but also for this latest ineptitude in dealing with cases from the past. The agency clearly is swamped and, in the absence of being able to deal effectively with past cases, it appears is now merely ticking boxes by sending out ill-considered and possibly ruinous letters.

Though Tusla is a relatively recent creation, it already is time to ask a simple but serious question: is Tusla fit for purpose?