Child Safety Measures Urgently Needed, by Steven Carroll, Irish Times, July 13, 2011

Child Safety Measures "Urgently" Needed

By Steven Carroll
Irish Times
July 13, 2011

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0713/breaking72.html

One in Four executive director Maeve Lewis responds to the Cloyne report during a press conference at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times

The State should move immediately to put in place measures taking responsibility for the safety of Irish children, abuse survivors group One in Four has said.

Speaking following the publication of the Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, One in Four director Maeve Lewis urged the Government to ensure child protection services were resourced and consistent across the country “which they certainly are not now”.

“The State must stop procrastinating and immediately put in place measures so that it can take proper responsibility for the safety of Irish children,” she said.

Ms Lewis said the Cloyne report was different to those before it as it documented abuse “right up to the present day”.

It highlighted that the Catholic Church was not in compliance with its own or the State’s child safety guidelines.

She said investigations had now shown child protection failures in the Ferns, Dublin and Cloyne dioceses and that “there is no reason to believe that the other 23 dioceses would be any different”.

Ms Lewis acknowledged that resources were scarce given the State’s economic problems but said survivors of abuse must be offered necessary support.

She said the National Counselling Service had a waiting list of over 1,000 people and that there was an eight month waiting list for the therapy service One in Four offered.

She also called for the rights of children to be enshrined in the constitution.

Abuse survivor and campaigner Andrew Madden said the report had proven yet again that the Catholic Church cannot be trusted with the safety, welfare and protection of children.

He said it was clear the Diocese of Cloyne was never “genuinely committed” to the guidelines in the 1996 Irish Bishops Conference framework document.

Mr Madden said he had long been concerned about a qualification in the document for stating that cases should be reported where it was “known or suspected” a religious had “actually” abused a child.

He said it was totally unacceptable that the National Board for Safeguarding Children, the Catholic Church’s own child protection watchdog, could not move child protection concerns into the public domain without the consent of bishops. “Imagine Hiqa being similarly constrained by the HSE,” he said.