The Irish State is legally vulnerable because of the “obvious gap” between the rights of children on paper and the protection of those rights in practice, Ireland’s special rapporteur on child protection has said.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher said the case of the missing, presumed dead, Co Louth child Kyran Durnin was “in the background” when considering the “real legal vulnerabilities” facing the Irish State in relation to its obligations to protect the rights of children.
Those rights included the right to protection from all forms of harm, she said.
Ms Gallagher said the latest analytical report of the Child Law Project (CLP), which examined trends emerging from 343 cases reported by the project between 2021 and June 2024, was right to raise the State’s legal vulnerabilities when it comes to child protection.
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The Falling Through the Cracks report, which identified a lack of appropriate placements and the absence of a cross-sectoral approach to child protection, as among the problems in the care system, was launched by Ms Gallagher in Dublin on Monday evening.
The packed attendance included Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell; the president of the High Court, Mr Justice David Barniville; and Mr Justice John Jordan, who manages the High Court’s special care list; and judges of the Circuit and District Courts.
The president of the District Court, Judge Paul Kelly, joined Ms Gallagher in praising the “vital” work of the CLP since its establishment in 2013. Both expressed concern that the project’s funding ceased last June and the importance of such work being continued.
Speaking after the launch, Ms Gallagher said, in addition to the internal Tusla review and other reviews into the Kyran Durnin case, there should be a fuller investigation outside of the criminal process “turning over the rock and seeing what happened”.
“This horrendous case should be a watershed moment for child protection in Ireland,” she said. “We need, through the prism of that case, to look at what went wrong and look at whether there needs to be a root and branch reform.”
This very much fitted in with Judge Kelly calling on the State to take a “quantum leap” and to implement a “bespoke best practice model” of child protection, she said.
A “key recurring problem” is that different agencies and departments were operating in silos rather than having a cross-sectoral approach, she said. “Child protection is an everyone problem and that fits with what the Child Law Project, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, have been saying for a very long time.”
The “single most important thing” about the latest CLP report “is that it shows a system that is getting worse”, she said.
“We have strong political will and rhetoric about the importance of children’s rights and child protection and now we need to match that up with resources. It’s time for the Government to put its money where its mouth is.”
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