So far this year Gardaí have made 10,000 referrals to Tusla.
There has been a 50% increase in the number of children referred to Tusla since 2018, according to data released to Aontú following a parliamentary question.
So far this year Gardaí have made 10,000 referrals, while Social Workers made 4,000, and Teachers also made 4,000 referrals to Tusla.
93 of the referrals came from probation officers, 92 from Managers of Direct Provision Centres, 62 from addiction counsellors, 7 from members of the clergy and four from dentists.
Aontú Leader and Meath West TD, Peadar Tóibín commented: "To put this in context, roughly 20,000 more children were referred to Tusla than sat the leaving cert last year.
"It is strange that while the number of children being referred to Tusla each year is increasing so drastically, the number actually being taken into care is not increasing at the same rate.
"I would question whether capacity in the fostering or residential care system is affecting the decision-making in this process. Are children being turned away because there simply isn't capacity in the system?
“In recent weeks it has become more and more apparent that the system is under enormous pressure and that children are being failed as a result - whether its unaccompanied minors being left homeless on the street, or children being put into unsuitable care settings like hotels and B&Bs to the extremes of children being sexually exploited while under the care of the State.
“The statistics which Aontu have been compiling over the past few years should be cause for serious alarm, from the suicide and homicide rate among children in care, to the fact that a retired judge had to blow the whistle on the flaws in the system, child protection and safeguarding needs to be absolutely prioritised by the Child and Family Agency, and the government must step up to face this very serious scandal.
"The state must also seek to determine what is happening within some families that is leading to such neglect and abuse in 2023", concluded Deputy Tóibín.
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