Sir, - Breda O'Brien's column about needy children ("Ideological divide failing children at risk", Opinion, April 15th) makes some very dubious claims about the reasons for the current crisis over residential places for children.
Her most notable mistake is to believe that left-right ideological debates have somehow played a crucial role in this issue. She claims, for instance, that "leftwing thinking, which has dominated the area of social work, has consistently played down or ignored the importance of family".
It is hard to imagine how Ms O'Brien could have come to this particular conclusion. She does not quote a single social work source to support her opinion. Perhaps, like de Valera, she just looked into her own heart in trying to decide what social workers believe. Social work training and research places a heavy emphasis on the family. Proportionately more time is given to it than on any other professional course (with the exception of family therapy training).
I know of no social worker who fits the profile portrayed by Ms O'Brien or who ignores or plays down the importance of family to children. Anyone who has ever worked with children in care, for instance, knows that no matter how abusive their background, the children are obsessed with their family and want - at some level - to be reunited with them. Untroubled children can enjoy the luxury of taking their sense of "family" for granted.
Ms O'Brien claims that "stability" in families can be generally equated with having two parents in the same household. (Could this be an ideological position, one wonders?) While acknowledging that single parents can also give stability, she gives us no clue as to why many cohabiting parents fail, and many single parents succeed, in raising well-adjusted children. Let's not forget that the families of the Kilkenny incest victim, Kelly Fitzgerald and the McColgans - to name but three prominent cases - all had two married parents in the home. Perhaps assessing stability is a slightly more complex process than counting the number of parents present in a household.
I am aware that Ms O'Brien, as a columnist, has to give her pieces some "bite" by taking up strong positions. Might I suggest that sharper research might equally give her column an edge. - Yours, etc.,
Kieran McGrath, (Senior social worker), Kilmainham, Dublin 8.