Ombudsman Muldoon warns Ireland is 'at a crossroads' of what can be achieved for children (2025)

While its publication marks the 20th year since the office was established to protect and promote the rights of children in Ireland, many of the same issues for children are still coming up today.

In the current climate of uncertainty and change, it is more important than ever for the State to bed down its commitment on children’s rights, Dr Muldoon said.

“Ireland is now at a crossroads of what can be achieved for children and this office will continue to push for the rights of children to be the signpost that is followed at all times."

The office received1,772 contacts about complaints last year, many of which are becoming more complex. Almost one in five related to more than one agency, and a third relating to multiple categories of concern.

Education remains the most complained about issue to the office; The report includes the case of a boy named Enda* who was locked in a side room at his school when he became "disruptive". The report notes:

Every year we deal with complaints from parents who are deeply unhappy with the use of seclusion and restrictive practices with their child, and we also hear from schools who are at a loss on how best to keep everyone safe.

The office also raised concerns that there is still no "comprehensive and coherent" plan to ensure that every child with special educational needs has a school place locally in a timely manner.

There has been some progress since the office launched a major report examining the forward planning for school places in 2022, the annual report notes.

However, it adds that the unacceptable situation faced by these students "has not gone away".

The office also remains concerned about insufficient data for "both the planning for, and monitoring of, the quality of these school places", as well as the emphasis on increasing the number of special schools and classes, "which moves Ireland further away from achieving an inclusive system".

In 2024, the office undertook six outreach clinics within commercial or emergency IPAS accommodation centres.

Complaints taken at these clinics and systemic issues noted across numerous accommodations identified significant concerns for the children and families living there.

The presence of mould across many of the services was impacting children’s health. "Many of the families reported their children as having repeat respiratory illnesses because of the mould in their rooms", the annual report notes.

This mould was also visible to office staff during visits, and in one of the centres, there were families living in rooms with no windows or natural light. Access to appropriate food for children was also a systemic issue found across services.

In one location both lunch and dinner were delivered from an external service at 1pm.

"Families told us the reheating of the food hours after delivery had caused food poisoning in their children. A child struggling with the food provided in this service was observed as appearing malnourished by his GP, occupying the lowest weight percentile for his age."