The 14-Year-Old who Should Bring Down the Government

If this was a normal country, and not a Norma country

Kitty Holland has an extraordinary story – wait, let me start again.

Kitty Holland has what should be an extraordinary story in the Irish Times today. In a functioning country that had normal standards for what it expects from its politicians, it’s a story that would bring down a Government:

“There is no place in secure State care for a teenage girl who gardaí believe is being subjected to “horrifying” sexual exploitation by multiple men, the High Court has heard.

The girl, who is 14 and has a mild learning disability, is in the care of Tusla and believes these men “care for her”, Judge John Jordan was told yesterday.

She had been approached by men who brought her to a house in another county and gave her alcohol, cocaine and other drugs to “relax her”.

Tusla was seeking a special-care order for the girl, but told the court it was currently unable to provide her with a bed in any of its three special-care units.”

It goes on from there and it gets worse, with accounts of two other children – one a teenage girl also being sexually exploited by a group of men, the other a teenage boy under the sway of a drugs gang – who also need special care orders. Special Care Orders are essentially the highest security detention, for their own safety, that the state can put a child under.

But let’s stick with the headline case, for now.

The first thing to note is that this child is 14 years old and somewhat developmentally disabled. She is in the care of Tusla – that is, the state agency for children that gets €1.47bn per year. Despite being 14 years old and in the care of Tusla, she is being sexually exploited by multiple adult men, who are giving her drugs and alcohol. This is an ongoing situation of which the Gardaí are aware.

Tusla – annual budget, remember, €1.47bn – has gone to court for this special care order but actually can’t enforce it because it does not have room in its own facilities. As Kitty goes on to report, there are 26 rooms available for such cases, but only 15 are open due to staffing shortages. That’s what one and a half billion quid of your cash buys.

Now, it’s very rare that a Judge does this:

“Jordan directed that details of the cases be sent to three Government Ministers – Minister for Children Norma Foley, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers – as a “vivid illustration” of the “consequences” of the State’s ongoing failure to open all special-care beds.”

The Judiciary are independent of the Government, and generally take that very seriously and do not engage in political criticism. For a Judge to essentially say – in public – that Ministers need to read all the details of this case and act is extraordinary.

A week or so ago I wrote here that Norma Foley has no business being in cabinet. I will remind you why: She is the Minister for Children. Will Norma Foley make a statement on this case? Will she even be asked about it? Will anybody demand to know why the agency for which she is politically responsible cannot provide a secure bed for a child being sexually exploited by adult men?

I’ll tell you what these Ministers will talk about though: Tuam. And the horrors of finding babies buried in a graveyard in coffins, which is the entirety of what has been discovered in the taxpayer-funded desecration of their cemetery in the Galway town, all in the name of making Norma Foley and Micheál Martin look more compassionate and caring than 1930’s-era Irish nuns. That’s the fucking bar they’ve set for themselves.

Meanwhile, we’ve got a 14-year-old girl in their own care, being raped on the regular in a systematic way, and the state cannot provide a secure place for her with a billion and a half in your taxes.

Am I going mad? And if I am going mad, why is nobody else going mad?

The thing about modern Ireland that the people who love modern Ireland never stop telling us is that it is a better place than 1930’s Ireland. First, that’s not a high bar: We’re vastly richer and better educated.

Second, despite that not being a high bar, we’re not even meeting it on our own core measurements of – let me check my notes here, oh yes – not letting children be abused.

Third, the person we’ve put in charge of this great project of being better than the nuns is Norma Foley, which is not what a serious country does.

Nor is this a one-off case: If you’ve an Irish Times subscription, for whatever reason, you can read about the other two mentioned in this single court sitting. There’s at least one other teenage girl being sexually exploited by a group of adult men, who has complained of pelvic pain as a result of what she describes as “very rough sex”. Nothing the state can do about that either, despite her being in the state’s care.

Traditionally, the first duty of a Government has been to defend and protect its citizens. Normally, this is further nuanced into the old-fashioned idea of women and children first. Functioning states do everything they can to protect their children. And this isn’t some Maude Flanders “think of the children” situation, either – I think we can all agree that teenage girls in the state’s care getting gang-raped on the regular and the state’s Ministers having to be shamed over it by a Judge passes the threshold where that sentiment is passe.

Remember, if you will, what brought down Albert Reynolds’ Government in 1994: A political controversy over the appointment of Harry Whelehan to the High Court, arising from the handling of the extradition of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

But not so long ago in Ireland, something like that could bring down a Government. In 2026, you can have a child in the state’s care get raped on the regular, have the authorities aware of it, have the Ministers say fuck all, and….. make page six of the Irish Times.

I try not to do unhinged anger but…. It would make you want to scream at your fellow citizens. Wake the fuck up.

JMG