NEED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD WELFARE AND PROTECTION SERVICES
Posted on April 29, 2010 at 08:00 PM
"Many of the abusing priests worked in parishes in my Constituency of Dublin Central. Many of the children who were abused were local innocent boys and girls who were sexually assaulted, had their childhoods traumatised and their adult lives permanently damaged. Coming after the Commission of Investigation into Child Abuse in Residential Institutions and Industrial Schools (The Ryan Report) earlier this year it paints a grim picture of Irish society, where the institutions of the State and the pillars of society invariably colluded with and protected the perpetrator – either passively or actively and left the child victim wholly unprotected. The commitment to "cherish the children of the Nation" rings very hollow when one reads the two reports. These two Commissions of Investigation have carried out invaluable work in exposing the horrors of the past – Ireland’s Gulag. The work must continue. It is not sufficient to draw a line in the sand as though such activities only occurred in the Archdiocese of Dublin or the diocese of Ferns. It is inevitable from the profile of abuse and abuser that every diocese in the country is potentially tainted. It is better now for the Government to make a decision to set up a Commission of Investigation for each diocese than to be compelled to do so at a later date. Only by investigating, identifying and exposing the full extent of the abuse can we as a people come to terms with our unsavoury past and move forward with comprehensive legislative and constitutional protections for our children and young people to ensure that what happened to them throughout the 20th century does not happen again in the 21st". The findings of the Murphy Report revealed evidence of cover ups in virtually every case of abuse brought to the attention of the Church authorities. The State authorities facilitated the cover ups by ensuring that the Church institutions and clergy were beyond the reach of the normal civil and criminal law enforcement procedures. The Church leadership was atrocious right up to the highest level. Bishops were far more concerned with avoiding scandal, protecting the reputation of the Church and also its assets. Incredibly, the welfare of children which should have been the main priority was not considered at all. At the same time the Murphy Report rejected the arguments put forward by the authorities in the Archdiocese of Dublin that they lacked a full appreciation of the phenomenon and seriousness of child abuse among its clergy. It refuted the argument that the Church was on "a learning curve". They pointed out that Church law was not even implemented by the authorities and questioned why insurance had been taken out by the Church if there was not prior knowledge of the abuse. Lessons have to be learned in the interests of the welfare and protection of children. The starting point is to amend the Constitution to ensure that children, their welfare and rights are placed at the heart of the Constitution. The Murphy Commission found that the legislation governing the role of the HSE in dealing with child sex abuse, is limited and inadequate and the Government must bring forward proposals to correct the defect in the law. The Garda enquiry which was set up last July must report its findings and take whatever action appropriate. The EU Commission established a Hotline number for missing children 116000 – EU. Eleven Member States are using this number in their countries. Ireland still has not acted on it and the Tánaiste told me this morning in the Dáil that there were no plans to introduce it. Yet, Ireland has had hundreds of children missing from State care in recent years and the US State Department is critical of Ireland’s failure to clamp down on human trafficking including that of children. Finally, there has been a lot of speculation in recent days that the religious orders and the other church institutions and bodies would make a substantial contribution to funding the construction of the National Paediatric Hospital on the Mater site in Dublin. Considering the colossal damage that the Church, its institutions and its clergy has caused to innocent children, it would be entirely appropriate that as an act of reparation and as a symbolic gesture the Church would fund the establishment of a hospital for the care and treatment of sick children.
