The Government was criticised today over its failure to hold a referendum on children's rights and for not implementing the recommendations of the Ryan report.
Eight child protection organisations - Barnardos, CARI, Children’s Rights Alliance, Irish Association of Young People in Care, ISPCC, One in Four, Rape Crisis Network of Ireland and Dublin Rape Crisis Centre - today joined forces to examine the progress of the Ryan Report Implementation Plan, one year after its publication.
The report revealed the Catholic Church and Government covered up almost four decades of sexual abuse and beatings by priests and nuns against thousands of children in State care. In the wake of the report, the Government published an implementation plan that included 99 action points to improve the delivery of children’s services.
The eight groups today began a campaign to maintain momentum on the key policy changes promised after the publication of the report. The Saving Childhood Ryan campaign claimed vulnerable children all over the country are still without social workers while the Government had failed to implement most of its own 99-point action plan.
Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay claimed several requests to meet Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for the Environment John Gormley - as leaders of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party - have also been refused.
"Every other political party in the state has met us and gone through our concerns in a detailed basis and I can't understand why it isn't possible for the Taoiseach to set an hour aside," he said. "We all know how busy he is, but children matter."
Mr Finlay said the promises and hopes laid out in the Government's implementation plan must not get stuck in the bureaucracy of politics or left behind because of a lack of resources. He said the system was so fundamentally flawed the question arose whether the HSE was the appropriate institution to deal with the implementation of the plan.
Campaigners also criticised the lack of political will to hold a referendum on children's rights. Jillian van Turnhout, chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, said a referendum was needed to ensure that the "fundamental law of our land reflects the values we hold as a nation - that children must be listened to, protected and cherished".
She also criticised the lack of a national out-of-hours social work service. "This potentially puts children's well-being and indeed their lives, at risk," she said. She added every child is entitled to a social worker and care plan but that, in practice, many children had neither.
Minister of State for Children's Affairs Barry Andrews said today social workers were exempt from the moratorium on recruitment, and that 200 additional social workers would be working by the end of June.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One programme, Mr Andrews said the Government was not holding back, adding more progress has been made in the last year than in the last 20 years. He said he was hopeful the referendum would take place in 2010.
"It's unfortunate in fact that the entire national debate on this has been focused on the date of the referendum rather than the subject," he added.
Institutional abuse survivor Christine Buckley said May 20th would always be a significant and memorable date. “It took 25 years and one day for us to be believed and vindicated,” said Ms Buckley, director of the Aislinn Education and Support Centre.
“But now we want the implementation of Judge Ryan’s recommendations," she said. “There is no point spending million on a report or having an inquiry if you do not take positive steps to make sure that these atrocities are not repeated.”
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the HSE said it will offer a face-to-face counselling service to adults who experienced abuse, neglect or trauma in childhood to help them cope better with their life and relationships.
“This specialist HSE service provides confidential counselling to adults who have experienced child abuse in their family, community or institutional setting,” she said. “Child abuse includes emotional, physical, sexual abuse and neglect. Counselling is available at 60 locations throughout Ireland and people can self-refer into the service.”