THE USE of Garda stations as the access route for children into emergency accommodation caused “embarrassment, anxiety and shame”, the Ombudsman for Children has said.
Emily Logan was citing findings from a report by her office, Homeless Truths: Children’s Experience of Homelessness in Ireland, published yesterday to coincide with International Day for Street Children.
The report, which consulted 15 children and young people aged between 16 and 19 who had experienced homelessness services, found “almost all of the children who had experience of accessing emergency accommodation recalled that having to do so had made them feel embarrassed, ashamed or anxious”.
If a person under 18 needs emergency accommodation, they must present at a Garda station after 11pm and wait for a duty social worker to organise emergency care.
Many said “uncertainty” had been an integral part of their overall experience.
“There was a marked contrast between those children who had been facilitated to stay in one placement for several months and those who had moved between multiple placements during the same period.”
Of the eight who had been at school during their time in emergency care, only three “continued to attend school without any significant interruption”.
Those who stopped did so either because continuing presented too great a challenge or because education ceased to be a priority”.
All spoke of how significant a difference the kindness and thoughtfulness of individual staff made to their experience.
One homeless child quoted in the report spoke of an out-of-hours social worker who “was real funny. And he just kept telling me loads of jokes and . . . I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much . . . They’re actually very good”.
Ms Logan was speaking at an event to mark the day, hosted by Aviva insurance in conjunction with Focus Ireland.
Founder of that organisation, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, said there would never be equality for Irish children until wider society viewed all children as “our children”.
