Key reports from the State’s special rapporteur on child protection were delayed, internal documents have shown.
Three annual reports were submitted in recent weeks by the outgoing rapporteur, the human rights lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher, covering her three-year term in office.
Documents released under Freedom of Information laws show the submission of reports was the subject of protracted correspondence between officials in the Department of Children and Gallagher extending back to 2023.
By the middle of last year, senior officials wrote to Gallagher seeking updates on her first and second annual reports, saying they were “the key output associated with the position” and “essential to its effectiveness”.
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The department said it received a draft of a report covering 2023/2024 at the end of January and a draft of the 2024/2025 annual report last week, and a draft report covering July 2022 to January 2023 in January.
In one instance, Gallagher indicated a submission date in the weeks or months ahead to officials, but a report was not submitted within that period after she indicated she was expanding the time frame covered.
Previous rapporteurs have said government departments ignore correspondence and delay publication of annual reports.
The documents reference resources made available to Gallagher, with the rapporteur indicating in 2023 that she intended to employ an assistant to make for “smoother” logistical arrangements, and in 2024 raising administrative support with the department.
In 2023, Gallagher told officials she could not take on a review of alignment between Irish legislation and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child without “changed resourcing”. She indicated timelines for analysing upcoming legislation were “very tight”, on one occasion pointing out that this was particularly the case “as I have no secretarial or other support”.
In a statement to The Irish Times, Gallagher said: “I have filed three annual reviews with the department: for 2022/23 (a period before my term began, but for which I insisted coverage be included); for 2023/24; and for 2024/25. Following standard processes, the department is considering these reports prior to them being formally submitted to Government for consideration, prior to publication.”
Asked about resourcing, Gallagher said: “Questions regarding resourcing and support of the role are matters I have addressed in my annual reports and they are currently under consideration.”
Asked if there were adequate resources in place, the department said the terms of reference were agreed by government and set out in the advertisement for the role.
The documents also show Gallagher raised an “extremely concerning” case in October 2024 with three cabinet ministers including then minister for children Roderic O’Gorman, offering assistance and suggestions as well as requesting a meeting on the case.
In December, she told the department that she had not received a response from the other two ministers or a Tusla review into the case.
The emails also show several exchanges regarding the payment of the €25,000 annual stipend associated with the rapporteur role.
In November 2023 the department emailed her seeking her payment details and said it needed her report by the middle of that month to pay the stipend. Gallagher responded saying she was “surprised and concerned” and “alarmed” by this.
A spokesman for the department said that Gallagher had not been paid the €25,000 stipend. “At the end of January, the department agreed to advance a portion of the stipend to defray the costs associated with publication of the reports”, which has not yet been paid.
Sinn Féin spokeswoman on children Claire Kerrane said the reports are “the most important part of the work of the Department of Children”. She said she had not seen them and there was “perhaps a reason in them” as to why they had not been published annually.
“I had raised this with Minister [for Children] Norma Foley last year. It made no sense to me that almost three years into the role of special rapporteur there were no reports furnished to the Minister,” said Kerrane.
She asked that Foley “ensure that reports come on time so they can report to the Government almost in real time”.
