Chapter 15 — Foster care

Neglect

Fifteen (15) witnesses reported having to work for their foster parents, in 10 instances on the family farm caring for animals, cleaning farm buildings, working in the fields, cutting and drawing timber, turf and hay, and carrying water. This work was reported to have taken precedence over other activities, particularly school attendance. Ten (10) witnesses reported being responsible for a large share of the housework in the foster homes including cooking, sewing, cleaning and carrying water. Five (5) witnesses reported being sent to work for neighbouring farmers and the relatives of their foster parents as ‘hired help’, but received no payment. Physically having to work so hard, we weren’t big.... It seemed like it was always freezing cold, snow and frost.... In winter ... sawing down trees, in the midst of him ...(foster father)... hurling abuse.... The memory of dragging what seemed like trees across fields to the back garden and then sawing them down to logs.... • We cut wood everyday when we came home from school and in the summer holidays we went felling.... They felled the trees and I was always considered a man in relation to the cross cut... (saw)... You would always be up to your knees in water and you had to saw... and trim the tree and it had to be cut up and brought back... and got ready... for the people who wanted it....Every Saturday you took the wood to town...the school holidays were taken up with this...

Eleven (11) witnesses reported on the lack of education they were afforded through being kept out of school to work at household or farm chores. A number of the witnesses commented on the fact that education was generally regarded as a low priority by their foster parents. School ... was a very difficult time ... the worst thing was not being allowed to do homework.... I would be trying to do it on the side of the road.... I wanted to be educated.... I managed to scrape through the Primary Cert and I took home this certificate, and was so proud of it. I remember her ...(foster mother)... holding it up and ceremoniously tearing it, ripping it up ... and threw it straight in the fire.

Five (5) witnesses reported that they received little formal education as a result of the demands placed on them to do household and farm work for their foster parents. One witness who had been sexually abused reported that when she became disruptive at school she was excluded and kept at home full-time to help her foster mother with a home-based commercial enterprise.

Eight (8) witnesses reported being sent to school in clothing inferior to that worn by local children. Poor quality and inadequate clothing was reported to have been replaced with good clothes on special occasions, such as official visitors calling and outings.

Eight (8) witnesses described receiving insufficient food and, in particular, being isolated at mealtimes when they were either not permitted to eat with the other family members or were given inferior food. One witness described being made to sit in the corner of the kitchen, where he recalled being thrown food scraps from the table: On all occasions when dinner was taking place ... I was put into the corner ... of the kitchen.... I had my dinner fed to me by ... one of the men ... in the house ... (who) would throw it ...(a piece of meat)... into me in the corner and I would eat that. • I remember coming in from school and the skillet was on the floor on the piece of sacking...cows udders, pigs tails, cabbage...you weren’t allowed to the table...everything was Middle Ages, I don’t know why we deserved that.

This witness also reported being told that when he was moved to another placement his new foster mother had to prevent him from eating the hen’s food in the farmyard. He believed he had been so hungry in the previous placement that he had developed a habit of eating the animal feed.

In seven foster homes all aspects of care were reported as neglectful, including both insufficient bedding being available and inadequate hygiene facilities. One witness reported on the lack of privacy available in the foster home where she was regularly stripped to be washed in the kitchen in front of male adults. Five (5) witnesses, three male and two female, reported being made to share beds with adults, despite there being alternative sleeping arrangements available. As previously mentioned, three of these witnesses reported being sexually abused.

Eight (8) witnesses reported that their foster parents always had at least one other and often several foster children at the same time. The belief that they were regarded as a source of income rather than children in need of care was expressed by many of the witnesses.

Fifteen (15) witnesses recalled officials visiting their foster homes. These visitors were described as social workers, public health nurses, and others, some of whom were known by name but not by their professional role. The Committee heard from witnesses that after the mid-1980s official visits were more regular. Seven (7) witnesses reported that social workers called to the foster homes on a regular basis. Several of the visiting social workers, public health nurses, and other officials were described as not speaking directly to the witnesses or other foster children but instead spent their time talking with the foster mothers. There were three reports of visiting inspectors being shown bedrooms used by family members where they were incorrectly told the witness and other foster children slept. One witness who reported being sexually abused on a regular basis within her foster home recalled the inspector’s visits, and another commented on the preparation made for planned visits: Miss ...X..., a nice young lady, she used to come to the house, used to drop in and just look at me, and on the face of it I would be seen to be well fed and kept very clean and well dressed. So, on the face of it, I would be seen to be well looked after but ... in hindsight ... I should have been taken away and spoken to on my own. • Visitors...do-gooders would come, the ladies with the cars and the furs would come. She...foster mother ...got all the clothes from the pawn...(shop)... and all the stuff would be home out of the pawn and would be laid out and then they went back again when they left...In those days of course you didn’t have a voice, nobody thought you had a brain even.

In one instance a witness reported that she believed the social worker was a social acquaintance of the foster parents, which made it difficult for the witness to disclose sexual abuse. Another witness recalled that official visitors came to see two other foster children in the home but nobody ever came to see her: ‘Someone ...(inspector)... called to see them 2 girls ...(foster siblings).... Nobody ever called to see me. ... The other 2 girls were paid for, they had to go to school, but I wasn’t.’ Witnesses were of the view that official visits were prearranged, they recalled being dressed in their ‘Sunday clothes’ and that the house was tidied by way of preparation for the inspectors.

Three (3) witnesses reported that their foster parents applied to adopt them; all reported being abused in their foster homes. One of these witnesses reported that the only visit she could recall during her lengthy foster care placement was when a woman came to assess her foster parents’ suitability as adoptive parents. The adoption was not approved but she remained in the foster home, where she reported that she continued to be abused. The other two witnesses reported that each of their foster homes had been visited on a regular basis by women whom they identified as nurses. The witnesses reported being officially adopted by their foster parents when they were approximately 10 years old and recalled no further visits from the nurses. Both witnesses reported that they continued to be abused following their adoption. Their evidence relating to abuse during the post-adoption period is not included in this report, being outside the remit of the Commission.

Socialisation and follow-up care

Eleven (11) witnesses reported being deprived of the opportunity to socialise and play. Five (5) witnesses reported that they were not allowed to play with local children and seven witnesses reported having no toys or playthings. The dominant memory for these 11 witnesses is of working, either on the farms, in the houses, or for relatives and neighbours of the foster parents.

Failure on behalf of the supervising authorities to provide for the practical and psychological needs of young people in foster care was highlighted as an area of neglect by many witnesses. This concern was specifically raised in relation to the absence of any preparation for discharge from foster care or preparation for a more independent adult life. Witnesses reported having to resort to their own courage and ingenuity when they reached the age of 16 years. They then became aware that they could or would have to leave the foster home as the authorities no longer had responsibility for their placement and foster payments had ceased. She took everything I had, clothes, photographs, everything, so I went and got a job and told nobody, I got the job with an agency and I went and I never came back to Ireland until I knew she was dead. I used to ring...local person...and ask if she was still alive. I know it was very callous of me but the hold and damage she did to my life...

In addition to the lack of preparation provided for witnesses’ discharge from foster care, the lack of support of post-discharge follow-up was reported as a further area of neglect.

Seven (7) female witnesses reported that they became pregnant and/or married before they were 20 years old to ‘escape’ foster homes from which there appeared to be no other route to independence. In my opinion I was thrown to the wolves ... the injustice ... because I feel nobody cared. I got married at 17 for security, he was ...several years... older than me. I tried to get out of a bad situation but I got into a worse one.