The failure of health authorities to guarantee the protection of separated children seeking asylum has echoes of failures involving clerical child sex abuse, writes Carl O'Brien.
When it was finally published, the Ferns report outlined in simple, stark terms the horrific alleged abuse of more than 100 young people over 40 years and how, in many cases, State authorities failed to protect them.
The Taoiseach, Government Ministers and health authorities expressed their grave shock at the findings, vowing to take steps to ensure children were properly protected.
However, with evidence of serious failures in the child protection system for hundreds of separated young people seeking asylum, is there to be another report in the coming years on how another group of children were similarly failed by the State?
"You have to ask, what have we learned" says Dr Pauline Conroy, author of two reports on separated children and trafficking. "There were huge mistakes made in the past - maybe we're still making them?"
The horrific death of Victoria Climbié, a nine-year-old from Ivory Coast tortured to death by her London-based grandaunt after being sent to the UK by her parents, illustrates the danger of a poor child protection system for separated children.
A report commissioned by the Health Service Executive (HSE) highlighting flaws in services for these children in Ireland raises similar concerns to those that featured in an inquiry into the nine-year-old's death, such as the lack of proper follow-up care when a child is reunited with a family member or adult.
More than 2,000 such children have been reunited with adults in Ireland since 1999. However, few, if any, regional health authorities provide proper follow-up care or monitoring of children reunited with parents, according to the report.
As it concludes: "Family reunification is poorly monitored and the processes leading to decisions are rushed and inadequately validated. They are not reviewed internally or externally. . ."
Many health authorities feel they have no statutory responsibility in this area and the lack of legal clarity over this issue, it appears, has yet to be officially resolved.
Flaws in the reunification process are just part of the problem. The report says poor accommodation for separated children who remain in care, lack of Garda clearance for those working with such children, and the focus on residential care rather than foster care remain critical issues.
The disappearance of 250 separated children who have gone missing from State care over the last four years is also of concern, although this is not a phenomenon unique to Ireland or its systems of care.
The HSE, to its credit, has been reasonably open about aspects of the shortcomings in care. It has improved accommodation standards and says it is also improving its reunification process. However, it is clearly frustrated at the lack of funds being released from the Department of Health, despite repeated requests.
The report urges that all State agencies work together, identify their responsibilities and ultimately ensure the best interests of children are maintained. The failure of authorities to do anything less could have serious consequences for children and the State, which may only become apparent in the years to come.