I speak today on a matter of urgent child protection and public expenditure.

I received a letter from the Children's Rights Alliance, CRA, expressing deep disappointment that Allpro Services had secured a contract to act as the official representative organisation for unaccompanied and separated children. These children are among the most traumatised individuals in the State. The Children's Rights Alliance has explicitly warned that these minors are extremely vulnerable to hypermobility, exploitation, trafficking and disappearing. Under section 50 of the International Protection Act, the appointed company must "represent, assist and act on behalf of the unaccompanied" child. They are tasked with navigating intense legal screenings and complex family tracing procedures, yet the State has outsourced this critical statutory duty to a commercial provider whose core business traditionally consists of cleaning, security, pest control and landscaping. As the CRA states, this company has no demonstrated expertise of the legal processes involved. This represents a staggering departure from child welfare standards. It is an absolute insult to the dedicated non-profits and childcare specialists across Ireland who have spent decades building expertise in this highly sensitive field.

However, to understand how we arrived at this point, we must look back no further than an article published by the Business Post in August of last year. This bizarre procurement decision shines a harsh light on a deeply broken international protection system. State inefficiency has turned a severe humanitarian crisis into an extraordinary corporate windfall. Corporate filings revealed that Allpro Services's after-tax profits surged eightfold to a staggering €10.6 million on the back of emergency State accommodation contracts, allowing the owners to extract a €5.6 million dividend payout.

This is not the first time this facilities firm has successfully expanded its corporate portfolio across the machinery of the State. The same article shows that they already hold a €5 million contract with the Department of agriculture, alongside a €290,000 contract with the Department of higher education. It is a devastating indictment of our current system when a single private entity can profit so dramatically from the misfortune of others, while also banking millions of euro from the Irish taxpayer due to a total lack of State planning, with no will to enforce a tough, fair and efficient migration system. We are now watching core child welfare functions being absorbed into the commercial facility.

Go raibh maith agat.

To be clear, I am not attacking any individual. I am questioning what all of this has to say about the state of our public procurement. Section 53(c) of the aforementioned Act requires this six-month pilot contract to be reviewed. I echo the CRA's demand that this evaluation must be conducted by an independent evaluator to ensure absolute transparency. We all will be watching this and we will not leave those vulnerable children to this company.