This week’s statement from the Ombudsman regarding children who have disappeared without trace is one of the most harrowing indictments of the State’s failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens. The Ombudsman confirmed that children under State care have vanished, their whereabouts unknown, their lives seemingly erased from the official record. Each missing child is a son or daughter, a human being who deserved safety, dignity, and the opportunity to thrive. Instead, they have been abandoned twice over – first by circumstances that placed them in care, and then by a system that failed to keep them safe.
The Ombudsman’s words cut deeply: “When a child disappears from State protection without explanation, it is not simply a case of poor administration – it is a catastrophic failure of duty.” Such a failure should shock the conscience of every citizen. It highlights a grim reality – that for too long, children in care, children with disabilities, and children from migrant and minority communities have been treated as statistics rather than as individuals with equal rights.
Behind each disappearance is a story of loss and of silence. Families left in despair, communities forced to grieve without answers, and records that too often remain incomplete or inaccessible. The scale of these failings points not to isolated mistakes but to systemic neglect. The Ombudsman has called for urgent reforms in tracking, safeguarding, and accountability. Those calls must not be filed away into another report gathering dust.
We must demand change. We must demand the creation of a national safeguarding system with real-time tracking for every child in care. We must insist on independent oversight with the power to intervene swiftly when a child is at risk. We must require that all agencies – health, social protection, education, and justice – share responsibility and information rather than hiding behind bureaucracy. Above all, we must recognise that children in care are our children. Their safety is a collective duty.
This is not just a policy debate. It is a moral test for Ireland. To lose even one child without trace is unforgivable. To lose dozens is an outrage. If this were happening in any other context – in hospitals, in schools, in neighbourhoods – there would be national uproar and immediate action. That same urgency must now be brought to protecting children who have already endured trauma and vulnerability.
The Ombudsman has spoken clearly. Now it is the duty of Government and of all of us to act. No more excuses, no more delays, no more children lost in silence. Every missing child must be accounted for, every gap in the system must be closed, and every official responsible must be held to account.
If Ireland is to call itself a fair and compassionate society, then we cannot rest until the children who disappeared without trace are found, remembered, and honoured – and until no child ever suffers this fate again.
