Government criticised for lack of update on child safety proposals

THE GOVERNMENT has been criticised for failing to give an update on 19 recommendations in the Garda Inspectorate’s report on the force’s investigation of sexual offences against children.

Fianna Fáil spokesman on children Charlie McConalogue said the Government had had the report for 14 months. He asked what was being done “to ensure they are being implemented” quickly.

“Many of the recommendations are straightforward and urgent. They need to be implemented in order to ensure that some of the mistakes of the past are not repeated.”

Even though the report was only published on Wednesday, “the Government has had it for a long time. I would expect significant progress to have been made in that time in terms of dealing with many of the recommendations and problems highlighted in the report.”

The inspectorate’s report found basic record-keeping so poor that official crime figures did not capture up to 65 per cent of the sex crimes against children reported to the Garda in recent years.

Almost one-third of cases were not classified as criminal offences and the report also showed inadequate co-operation between the Garda and the HSE. Plans on how cases would be investigated between the two agencies of State had only been put together in 1 per cent of cases.

Minister of State for Health Róisín Shortall said Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald was involved in addressing the issue and it was “being treated with absolute urgency in her department”.

Mr McConalogue said the report “showed there were turf wars between the Garda and the HSE in terms of how reports were dealt with”.

Ms Shortall, however, rejected claims of turf wars. She said the Dáil debate stemmed from an article in The Irish Times on the Garda Inspectorate report which referred to a turf war. Ms Shortall said this contention was not in it.

She quoted from the report, which said an international body for the prevention of child abuse recognised that “turf issues will inevitably arise when work begins on a multidisciplinary response to child abuse. Turf issues are the result of each agency or professional group’s identification of its own mandate and the concerns that somehow the co-operation being sought will negatively affect this mandate.”

Ms Shortall said the inspectorate’s statement “clearly seeks to comment on so-called turf issues in the general sense and is not a statement aimed particularly at either the HSE or the Garda authorities”.