Safeguarding Practices Well Improved

By Patsy Mcgarry
Irish Times
October 12, 2012

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1012/1224325187833.html

ANALYSIS: Despite progress, it simply beggars belief that three dioceses should still be laggards

IT WAS a better kind of curate’s egg, good in more spots.

But yesterday’s Health Service Executive audit of child protection practices in the Republic’s Catholic dioceses found that, despite four damning statutory reports, good practice in child protection still remains an aspiration for some dioceses.

It simply beggars belief that three dioceses in Ireland should still be laggards in this area.

Why, in 2012, is it still the case that Meath, Raphoe and Ossory should have “inadequate collection and retention of data” to do with child protection? Even while acknowledging that they too are “improving”. And Raphoe, in the bad books again?

But credit where credit is due. Real progress has been and is being made. The majority of dioceses performed well and this has been recognised.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald acknowledged yesterday that the audit found “a marked improvement in church child protection practices in recent years, in particular since the church’s new ‘Safeguarding Children’ standards were introduced in 2009”.

She commended those in church leadership “for their determination in guiding improvements” and those lay people “in voluntary positions in parishes right across the State for their efforts to ensure that best practice in child protection is adhered to”.

She also noted that, at her request, Gordon Jeyes of the HSE had “developed a very close working relationship with Ian Elliott”, chief executive of the church’s own National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC).

Barnardos “welcomed indications that substantial progress has been made by the church”. Its chief executive, Fergus Finlay, said “the legacy of secrecy and protecting institutions over children appears to be slowly coming to an end. The progress outlined in this report is heartening.”

The audit proved “just how far we’ve come in recent years, although we all know how far we still have to go. We have made substantial progress in relation to prioritising the protection of children in all settings. Changing the Irish Constitution to reflect and further this progress is the next step in this evolution,” he said.

One in Four executive director Maeve Lewis responded that “it would appear that the church is moving in the right direction” but that “while some dioceses have clearly absorbed the lessons of the sex abuse scandals, others continue to delay in making sure that children are safe”.

She questioned discrepancies in the audit findings. She noted, for example, how the audit referred to allegations being made against 189 priests in 24 dioceses, “while the Ferns, Dublin and Cloyne reports taken with the 10 diocesan audits conducted by Ian Elliot of the NBSC indicated allegations against 286 priests in 13 dioceses”.

It was “difficult to equate” singling out Clonfert diocese “for particular praise in the HSE audit when Ian Elliot’s recent review concluded that the diocese did not even have a child protection policy in place as late as 2011”.