Failure to act on child abuse 'not acceptable

FINE GAEL ARDFHEIS:IT IS unacceptable that people are aware of child abuse and neglect but fail to act, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has said.

Speaking on the opening night of the Fine Gael ardfheis at the Convention Centre Dublin, she said there would be “no more standing idly by” on the issue.

Condemning what she called the “shambolic child protection system” of the previous government, she said every year there were 30,000 child protection cases, of whom 1,500 children every year were the victims of sexual, physical or emotional abuse.

Opening the session on child protection, Ms Fitzgerald said “this means that in recent years, thousands more children have been neglected, assaulted, raped and humiliated”.

Calling for increased awareness of the harm done to children through abuse and neglect, the Minister said that “in many past instances of abuse, people knew but did nothing”.

About 20 protesters gathered outside the Nama-controlled venue protesting against cuts to disadvantaged Deis schools and against bondholders. One placard read “Ballyhea says no!” The north Cork group opposed repayments to bondholders.

A larger anti-household charge demonstration is expected outside the high-security event tomorrow. Between 4,000 and 5,000 delegates are expected to attend the ardfheis over the weekend.

Ms Fitzgerald said breaking the “national cycle of silence” required legislation on child protection which was pending, a reformed system of State care and intervention and the amendment of the Constitution to strengthen child protection.

The Oireachtas committee on health and children will consider the heads or initial elements of the Children First Bill after Easter. The Minister said this legislation was first promised in 1998 by Fianna Fáil. She pledged to have it in place by the end of the year.

About 1,600 children are in long-term fostering but cannot be adopted by their foster parents because their parents are married. She said the State discriminated against children “based on whether their parents wear wedding rings or not”.

The Minister is awaiting the advice of the Attorney General before publishing the report into the deaths of children in care, which was “harrowing and upsetting” and “would show how abuse and neglect in the early years of a child’s life can be the beginning of a journey which is bleak and troubled and short”.