HEALTH board staff throughout the State could face prosecution following a Garda investigation into complaints that two officials and a doctor allegedly failed to report a child abuse case to gardai.
The investigation concerns the alleged failure by a doctor, a psychologist and a social worker in Dublin to report a case to gardai" in the late 1980s. The investigation has been completed and a file is expected to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions soon.
Should the DPP decide to prosecute those concerned for an offence called misprision of felony, and should the prosecution succeed, health board directors of community care and social workers throughout the State could face prosecution.
The Garda investigation arises from complaints made by Mr Edward Hernon, chairman of the Accused Parents' Aid Group. The APAG describes itself as "the national group that specialises in providing advice and support to parents who state they have been mistakenly involved in investigations of alleged child abuse.
For many months Mr Hernon has been contacting politicians and gardai seeking the prosecution of health board directors of community care for failing to report suspected cases of child abuse to gardai since the mid 1980s.
Mr Hernon bases his allegations on what he says are discrepancies in official statistics for the number of child abuse cases confirmed by health boards and the number reported to the Garda.
Last year, new rules were introduced by the Department of Health and the Garda to ensure that health boards and gardai notify each other of suspected child abuse cases.
In the case investigated by gardai, the doctor and psychologist were involved in providing evidence for the Eastern Health Board which was investigating an allegation that a child had been, abused.
Their reports went to the health aboard and not to gardai. This was, and is, an entirely normal procedure. It is believed the man accused of abuse protested his innocence and is supported by the APAG.
It may seem contradictory that Mr Hernon and his organisation have complained that this case, and others like it, were not reported to gardai but the APAG takes the view that social workers, should not be allowed to intervene in families unless there is sufficient evidence for a successful Garda prosecution.
Childcare workers argue that such evidence exists only in a minority of cases.
The report of the Kilkenny incest inquiry, chaired by Ms Catherine McGuinness SC, now a judge, stated: "No statute lays, down in express terms a duty on any person, private or official, to report child sexual abuse or suspected child sexual abuse."
It concluded that the offence of misprision of felony - failure to report the actual commission of certain serious offences - had restrictive features which made it "unlikely that this offence will be used in the future in connection with the reporting of child sexual abuse".