“I've been abandoned for years, I just wanted a room” - The Naas student who was failed by ‘the system’

 Piotr Fillipek is a thriving university student, but his torrid childhood was not helped by lack of intervention from the Government 

By Evan Dalton

In the very recent past, the ‘systems’ within the Irish government have failed children across the country. The failures of such organisations and processes are no more present in any story than that of 20 year old university student, Piotr Fillipek. 

 

Piotr spent most of his childhood growing up in Naas, County Kildare, after emigrating from Poland with his mother and three brothers, just before joining primary school. In his own words, “I think I’m a capable gentleman,” and even if you’ve never met Piotr, you could gather an understanding, from both his warm embrace, that this is very much the case. 

His first experience with Irish government authorities was in primary school. After emigrating to Ireland, Piotr attended a Christian Brothers school. “Funny enough, I came into Ireland with no English, and I've always been a very active child. I don't think they gave the

teachers any context for who I was, but I came in running around screaming, speaking no

English. They actually assumed I was disabled, so I was put in a disabled class for a year.” 

Bullying was a common theme throughout primary school, but the real issue for Piotr was at home. “I found my home very chaotic. My mother specifically was very abusive. From primary school, I would come home after school, after getting bullied, and then at home, my mum would beat me up.”

“My mother in general, to not to get into too much detail here, but, torture is the word that could be used, of what happened for years. 

Piotr recalled horrid acts of physical and verbal abuse, such as putting out cigarette butts on him, and threatening to have the Gardaí send him and his two brothers off to orphanages. 

“There was guards in the house a lot of the time. I remember my mother used to basically terrify us with the fact that if guards ever came over, we'd get sent to an orphanage where we'd get raped.” 

At age 12, Piotr managed to escape. After one bad night of abuse, he ran away. “I got away from her. I ran away, and I was on the street with just my undies. I was, like, just shouting in the street, like, please, someone help.” 

He is a man into his fashion, and his dazzling outfit put my lacklustre jumper/cargos combination to shame. Piotr is, and always has been, a passionate basketball player. His proudest achievement lately is a victory over UCD. 

When secondary school arrived Piotr’s situation didn’t improve. With nowhere to stay, he was forced into homelessness. “I was physically homeless. While a lot of it was, like, couch surfing, I spent a lot of nights on the bench. I spent a lot of nights under a bridge. It was terrible.” 

Tusla’s Inadequate Solution 

When he contacted Tusla, the child and family agency in Ireland, he was told to try to find a ‘private arrangement.’ A private arrangement is an informal arrangement where a child lives with and is cared for by a relative or close family friend when a parent cannot, and the child is not in the formal legal care of the state.

This suggested fix wasn't a solution for Piotr. “Who am I meant to go to? How am I meant to walk up to a family and be like, hey, I know you don't really know me, but can I just live off your money forever? That's kind of what they expect me to do.” 

Due to no financial support from the Government, Piotr was forced to work for most of his leaving cert. He found a job in Costa Coffee, which made it a perfect interview meeting place.

Brewing Success

“I think I've spent more money than I've earned from Costa,” he exclaimed. Piotr enjoys hard work, and found Costa a place of comfort, but it made having a regular school life, and keeping up with studies, very difficult. “It’s like something from a movie, but I was studying under a bridge.” 

Piotr called Tusla daily, looking for somewhere to live. He also contacted several politicians, to which he got no response. “What I thought would happen… was that I would get some sort of room somewhere, right? I didn't expect parents. I know that I'm 17. I've been abandoned for years, I just wanted a room.”

He did eventually get given a place to stay, due to his own perseverance. Pitor was placed in a homeless shelter through the Kildare County Council, but the conditions were not ideal. “It was terrifying, and I remember I was right to be terrified.”

Despite everything he had gone through, Piotr earned an amazing result of 600 points in his Leaving Cert, earning a place in Trinity College Dublin. 

“I got the 600 points, and I was glad. I was so happy, of course. My work paid off, but then I was like, ok, what's next? It's immediately… can I get somewhere to stay now? Will I get money? The trouble with the authorities didn't end there.”

Unfortunately, what he didn’t know then, was that the arrangements that Tusla suggested to him would eventually be used by the Department of Higher and Further Education to block him from accessing scholarships to study at university. 

“It was baffling. It was, to dumb it down, because they didn't give me money, I can't

get money, so I can't get money. That's literally what it was.” 

Eventually, the residents of Naas took matters into their own hands. Piotr’s friend's mother,  Deirdre Fitzgerald, set up a go-fund-me titled ‘Help Piotr to stay in college.’ At the time of writing, it has received over €12,600 in donations from friends and those looking to help. 

“That saved me… that completely saved me from the debt.” 

Piotr is extremely proud of himself, and his hard work. Accepting help is not something that has come easy to him, due to how much he’s relied on himself in his life. “I feel guilty. I hate the fact that I had to resort to direct help from people. I feel like I don't deserve it.” 

Ultimately, the failings of Irish Governments over the past twenty years, Piotr feels, are all present in his case. He describes himself as a failure of a very broken system. “I expected that the government would help, because in my opinion, it's their job to help people in need.” 

It is an opinion that is vastly shared, but an opinion that in modern day Ireland, does not always seem to be true.