Sir, – Every time there is a scandal in the Irish child protection services (and there have been many), media outlets jump up and down and look for someone to blame. Can I suggest that we are all to blame? The reason is that when it all boils down to it, child protection is not a vote-getting issue, so it is not a political priority. That is why Irish child protection services are, and always will be, in crisis.
I felt embarrassed and ashamed last Friday when the deal-breaking issues between the Independent TDs and the prospective government focused on Garda stations and turf-cutting.
So 7 per cent of the children in state care have no allocated social worker, and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, says it does not have the resources to investigate all of the child protection notifications that it receives, yet turf-cutting is a deal breaking issue for some TDs.
It ironic that we hear on a daily basis about the sacrifices of the 1916 rebels and the importance of the Proclamation, at a time when we put turf before child protection and human services. – Yours, etc,
JOHN BYRNE,
Lecturer in Social
Care Practice,
Waterford Institute
of Technology.