ANALYSIS:IN THE rush for answers on how to help prevent the horror of another Roscommon incest case, the stampede has been in the direction of new legislation or a constitutional referendum.
Political parties, children’s groups and victims’ organisation have led a chorus in recent days calling for sweeping changes to the way the child protection system operates.
The calls are understandable, but largely misguided.
The reality is most of the laws and procedures needed to protect vulnerable children are already in place.
The problem is that social services are either not in a position to fully implement the laws, or are not sufficiently resourced to do their job properly.
Any protracted attempt to get a patchwork of new legal measures, or embark on a tortuous route towards a constitutional referendum would detract from the need to ensure child protection services are properly resourced and that existing legislation is properly put into force.
For example, we already know that child protection services in Roscommon aren’t properly resourced.
We know this, because Health Service Executive officials in the area say so themselves.
In the most recent report on the adequacy of children’s services in the region, officials in the area speak of the importance of family support services in the region.
“However, the current resource levels fall far short of allowing the HSE to adequately cater to the acute and intense family support needs which are being identified by the community and all other key agencies,” they add.
“The absence of key mainstreamed programmes to all areas significantly limits the level and range of family support interventions available to families in crisis.”
The report adds that the Roscommon area requires additional resources to support community development and family support in order to build community-based services by working in partnership with community and voluntary groups.
Some suggest that laws need to be changed in order to make it easier for social workers to intervene in cases of abuse and neglect, and to take children into care.
The reality is these laws exist. The Childcare Act of 2001 gave health authorities new powers to intervene in cases of suspected abuse.
It contains a variety of care orders which can be invoked if the evidence of abuse and neglect is real.
Social workers on the ground say there is generally no problem in using the law. The problem is the painstaking and resource-hungry work in building up an accurate picture of children’s lives. Such evidence is rightly needed to secure a court order.
In addition, our avowed commitment to children is not always translated into actions to improve their lives.
The shelves of the Department of Health and Children are creaking with the number of reports and recommendations into cases where the State failed to provide sufficient care for children.
Some of the starkest cases are still seared into the public memory. There is the Kilkenny incest case, Kelly Fitzgerald in Mayo and the McColgan family in Sligo.
They contain recommendation after recommendation aimed at overhauling child protection services and ensuring children at risk can be afforded protection.
Sadly, many of their findings and recommended changes are marked by the same pattern of inaction.
In the Kelly Fitzgerald case, for example, a key recommendation was to monitor the workings of the childcare system and ensure regularly that the procedures were being applied and the laws being implemented.
Yet, as Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter has pointed out, 12 years later, no system has been put in place to ensure that monitoring. That may be part of the reason why child protection guidelines are not being implemented uniformly throughout the country.
In truth, we have always fallen woefully short of the mark when it comes to putting words into action.
The Proclamation of Independence pledged to cherish all the children of the State equally. The first Dáil 90 years ago talked of ensuring that no child would go cold or hungry or in need of shelter.
Yet, the gaps remain. Social work teams are unable to respond to hundreds of cases of abuse because they are overloaded with work. Children with mental health problems wait for up to a year or more to get an assessment. Youngsters who are neglected and abused by their parents only come to the attention of authorities when it’s too late.
If anything, the Roscommon case is a reminder of society’s lip service to the value we place on our children at risk.
Unless we are willing to address the real and obvious shortcomings in how we care for our most vulnerable children right now, we can’t claim to be doing everything possible to help prevent cases like that in Roscommon happening in the future.
Prevarication on children’s rights shameful: page 16: Editorial comment: page 17
