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	No More Excuses, Just Protect Our Children Irish Independent May 23, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/no-more-excuses-just-protect-our-children-1748873.html There have been many expressions of shock at the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, which found that physical and sexual abuse of children was widespread, systematic and endemic. But are we really surprised? Can anyone from the Department of Education, from Catholic bishops, religious superiors, inspectors, teachers, care workers, doctors to nurses, claim ignorance of what was actually going on? Many a child of my era was threatened with the reform school if we did not behave. We had our own Gulag Archipelago on our doorstep and did nothing about it because of a slavish adherence to a religious dictatorship. But the Government's priority now, as articulated by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, is to prevent anyone speaking ill of the religious by bringing in a new criminal offence of blasphemous libel. If we put half as much effort into debating a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of children as we have with the Lisbon Treaty, then there would be no reason why both referenda cannot be held this October. Indeed the Lisbon Treaty, if ratified, would give legal effect to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which includes specific provisions for the the rights of children to be protected; to express their views freely; for their views to be taken into account; to maintain contact with their parents; and to have their best interests be the primary consideration in all actions taken in relation to them. It would be appropriate that a referendum on a treaty, which gives legal effect to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, should also be accompanied by a constitutional amendment protecting the rights of our children and getting rid of the archaic constitutional protection of religious rights not to be offended by others. We have had enough of the apologies and excuses from perpetrators of child abuse and those who protected them. It is time we had some real action, and we cannot trust those who have ruled this country for so long to provide it. The message to all parties at the elections must be: we want constitutional action on this now, or you will not be given a second chance.
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