An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17
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Sharon Keogan (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I welcome my intern Noel Monahan and his mother and grandmother, Nessa Teehan and Angie Teehan. Noel has been an intern in my office over the last six to eight months. He has been a valuable asset to my team and I thank him for his contribution.
I want to raise an issue that warrants urgent attention from the House and from the Minister. Last week a young mother named Grace died by suicide after spending more than a year trying to be reunited with her infant son who was removed into care shortly after his birth. Her death is a tragedy and I extend my sympathy to her family. It compels us to look more closely at a broader issue that receives remarkably little scrutiny. International research has found that parents, particularly mothers, whose children are taken into care face significantly elevated risks of self-harm and suicide. A study published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found that such mothers are almost three times more likely to attempt suicide and more than four times more likely to die by suicide. Similar findings have also been documented in the UK. This raises a very basic question. What do we know about this in Ireland? Does Tusla have data on the deaths, including deaths by suicide, of parents whose children are in care or subject to care proceedings? If not, how can it meaningfully assess the impact of child removal on parental well-being and mortality? Has any independent research been commissioned in this jurisdiction to examine this issue? If the answer to these questions is "No", then we must accept that Ireland currently has no reliable way of knowing how many parents may have died following the removal of their children from them, and that is not an acceptable position. In light of Grace's heartbreaking death and the clear international evidence, I call on the Minister to commission an independent national report into the mental health and mortality outcomes of parents whose children are removed into State care.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-17