BishopAccountability.org
	Church and State Failing Our Vulnerable Children Irish Independent January 9, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/church-and-state-failing-our-vulnerable-children-1596377.html Commenting in this newspaper in the immediate aftermath of the publication of the Church's own Cloyne report I wrote that any set of child protection guidelines, no matter how comprehensive, are only as good as those implementing them. This is as true of the State as it is of the Church. The Church's guidelines, Our Children Our Church, are excellent. The State's guidelines, Children First, are also excellent. However, both sets of guidelines are not being implemented evenly. The failure of the Church we know about, courtesy of Bishop John Magee who is astoundingly resisting all calls to resign, included de facto calls from the two most senior Churchmen in the country, Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Bishop Magee, a former secretary to three popes, is probably terrified at the prospect of his once glittering career ending in ignominy. But whether he resigns or not, that is how it will end. He needs to look to the greater good. His departure would have the effect of telling society, and ordinary Catholics who yet again feel deeply humiliated by all this, that when senior Church figures signally fail to implement their own child protection guidelines then they will resign, and that there is accountability. We also know that some parts of the Church are properly implementing the guidelines, for example Dublin and Ferns. What about the State? Is it properly and evenly implementing Children First? The answer is no, emphatically not, even though far more children now come into contact with the State and its employees than come into contact with the Church and its personnel. Where is the outrage about this? Where is the media coverage? Why is no-one being held accountable? On July 31 the Minister for Children issued no fewer than three reports dealing with the implementation of Children First. It found cracks all over the system. One of the three reports is the result of a survey of individuals who work in the area of child protection. Of those surveyed, only 16pc said that the Children First guidelines are working well. The same number said they are not working at all while 60pc said they are working "to some extent". The rest didn't know. When asked whether the HSE and the gardai are "acting in accordance with the Children First guidelines in Child Protection cases", only 13pc said "Yes", 14pc said "No", and 49pc said "to some extent". This is a potentially disastrous system failure. When asked whether the guidelines in respect of abuse allegations against employees and volunteers are being adhered to, 27pc said "Yes", 10pc said "No", and 28pc said "to some extent". So barely a quarter of respondents were able to say with total confidence that abuse allegations are properly dealt with. As the reports also make clear, even when child abuse cases are properly referred, the system is so underfunded and overworked that often it is only the most severe and immediate allegations that get acted on. Reacting to the publication of these reports, Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter said they "confirmed that our child protection services are chaotic, uncoordinated and grossly inadequate". He described the failure to properly implement Children First as "abject and scandalous". He also criticised the use of the mysterious phrase "to some extent". As he put it: "the truth is that guidelines which are only working "to some extent" are not working well and are not being rigorously applied to protect the welfare of children". If Our Children Our Church was working "to some extent" would we be happy? This week a report into the death seven years ago of 18-year-old Tracey Fay was published. She was in the care of the relevant health authorities but nonetheless died of a drugs overdose. Shatter again: "[the report] starkly illustrates the failure of the relevant health board at the time to apply the 1999 Children First child protection guidelines and yet again confirms the lack of transparency in the workings of our child protection services." In other words, had Children First been properly applied Tracey would probably be alive today. To return to the Church, the results of the diocese by diocese audit by the HSE were released by Children's Minister Barry Andrews on Wednesday. It is of limited value because it contains no details as to the number of allegations received by all dioceses and what has become of them. The Bishops of England and Wales have been publishing these figures since 2002. The State itself must publish similar figures about its various arms. How many teachers, how many social workers have had allegations made against them? It's no good the HSE and the State holding the Church to one standard while holding themselves to a lower one. The fact is, implementation of child protection procedures is inadequate across the board, in Church and State and in voluntary organisations as well. Are we really serious about child protection? The answer is, "to some extent". In other words, we're not really serious. Contact: dquinn@independent.ie
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.