Urgent constitutional change is required to ensure that any new legislation protects the rights of children as a priority, the Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan has said.
Ms Logan today published her annual report for 2009, which shows her office received 912 complaints last year – an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year.
Some 74 per cent of complainants were parents and extended family, while professionals, including teachers and social workers were responsible for 12 per cent of the total.
The ombudsman said that not only there had there been an increase in the volume of complaints, but also an increase in the complexity of the complaints received. Current gaps in law, policy and practice meant some children remained vulnerable and were not receiving the full support of the State.
Ms Logan highlighted a number of emerging issues, including the treatment of ‘separated’ children living here without parents or family.
In one such case, the ombudsman’s office dealt with a 14-year-old girl who became separated from her brother due to policies by the Department of Justice and the HSE to ‘disperse’ such children at the age of 18. The girl’s brother had been moved to Sligo, while she remained in Dublin with no other family.
Ms Logan said it was obvious the State’s primary concern in such cases was about an individual’s immigration status, and not their status as a child.
Other issues highlighted in the 2009 annual report include difficulties for children in accessing special care placements and appropriate supports and therapy, including healthcare, educational supports and school transport.
Ms Logan noted difficulties for parents and guardians in accessing integrated services to meet their children’s needs.
In some cases, she said families were dealing with 20 different people in an attempt to manage care for their child. She urged public bodies who provide services for children to start working together to “take the burden from families”.
Ms Logan said she had seen a shift in the public attitude with regard to the protection of children and that she would like to see a constitutional referendum this year.
“This report covers 2009, a year when, through the Ryan and Murphy reports, both the scale of child abuse and the culture of impunity was realised for the first time by many,” she said. "These reports revealed that it is easier to violate the rights of people who are not socially powerful, something that continues to this day. I remain convinced that constitutional change is required to ensure that any new legislation puts the interests of children first.”
Ms Logan said the degradation of children chronicled in the Ryan report was “total” and that they were very deliberately made to feel worthless. “For many of them, this was compounded by the systematic physical, emotional and sexual abuse which represented the final erosion of dignity and annihilation of their most basic human rights.”
The children had been failed by “many people, in many ways”, the ombudsman said. “It should be recalled, however, that responsibility did not rest with members of the clergy alone. Abuse and neglect perpetrated on this scale would not have been possible if those involved in public administration and public life more generally were not in some way complicit.”
Ms Logan expressed concern about the resources allocated to her office, noting the McCarthy report last year originally recommended that it be amalgamated with other offices. Indications from the Government recently were that this would not now happen.
Ms Logan said her office still had 15 staff members – the same number as in 1998. Her budget allocation last year was €2.377 million but this was reduced to €2.31 million.
She said she had concerns about the ability of her office to respond to the increasing demand for its work and that because resolving cases was taking much longer than it should, she was afraid parents would become frustrated.
Fine Gael's spokesman on children Charlie Flanagan noted the Government had failed to set a date for a referendum on children's rights before the Dáil went into recess last week, despite the wording for such a referendum having been agreed by a cross-party committee in February.
Mr Flanagan said the concerns raised today were "sadly familiar as they reflect many of the issues we are aware of from information that has been uncovered on the deaths of children in care".
He noted the ombudsman had highlighted cases where there had been a lack of co-operation from the HSE in pursuing some of her investigations.
"This is also all too familiar and I expect Minister for Health Mary Harney to hold those who are refusing to co-operate to account."