More than 150 people who presented as children seeking international protection in Ireland over the last two years were ultimately assessed not to be eligible as minors, new figures released by Tusla, the child and family agency indicate.
In a letter to Fine Gael TD and member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee James Geoghegan, Tusla said 86 people last year and 67 in 2024 were referred back to the Department of Justice International Protection Office (IPO).
Geoghegan told The Irish Times on Tuesday that the Tusla figures meant there were “over 150 cases in two years where people initially entered child protection settings but were later assessed as not meeting the threshold for care as minors”.
“This raises clear safeguarding concerns,” he said. “Child protection placements are designed for children, with strict welfare and supervision standards. They are not designed to accommodate adults, even temporarily.”
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Geoghan said there was an issue of “accountability” to be answered by Tusla in getting age assessments right.
“The law places responsibility for age assessment with the determining authority under the Department of Justice, yet in practice Tusla has been left managing the consequences where age is in doubt, despite not having statutory authority to make formal age determinations,” he said.
Tusla has seen a significant increase in unaccompanied minors referred for accommodation, particularly from Ukraine, in recent years.
To the end of October last year the agency had 265 Ukrainian young people referred to it by the IPO, compared with 161 children from Somalia, 65 from Afghanistan, 54 from Vietnam, 19 from Pakistan and 11 from Albania.
A Tusla spokesman said: “The challenge of upscaling services to respond promptly to the number of unaccompanied minors arriving in Ireland is ongoing.”
He said the “global factors affecting this are outside of the control of Tusla”, which is making “best efforts” to accommodate these children in “as safe a manner as possible in line with their care needs”.
Geoghegan said that no child, wherever they were from, should ever be placed in a setting where safeguarding standards were compromised.
“The responsibility for age assessment must be clearly assigned, properly resourced and fully carried out by the Department of Justice. The current blurred lines are not fair to vulnerable children and they are not fair to Tusla.”
He said that when Tusla appeared before the Public Accounts Committee in October, members were told that 528 unaccompanied minors seeking international protection were in State care.
“That is a very substantial child protection responsibility,” he said.
Tusla, in its letter to Geoghegan, said the legal provision for undertaking age assessment of unaccompanied minors arriving in the State rested with the Minister for Justice and the IPO.
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It said in all cases those who maintained they were unaccompanied minors or who appeared not to be an adult were referred to Tusla.
“While the determination of a child’s age is not part of the intake eligibility assessment, there may be a requirement to explore if the person is in fact a child as part of the assessment where there are doubts that the person referred to the service may be an adult. This will only be explored if there are doubts in relation to the stated age of the person and/or in cases where several elements of evidence gathered contradict the claimed age,” Tusla said.
It said existing international protection legislation did not give power to the agency to make an age assessment for international protection purposes.
“The redrafting of the legislation under the EU Pact on Migration provides an opportunity for clarity in relation to the function of age assessment,” it said.
