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  Finlay Seeks Child Protection Laws

By Aoife Carr
Irish Times
April 16, 2008

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0416/breaking63.htm

The chief executive of children's charity Barnardos has warned there will be "further disasters" if child protection guidelines are not placed on a statutory footing.

Fergus Finlay was speaking in the wake of a HSE report into Dr Niall McElwee, the childcare lecturer convicted of attempted indecent assault. Dr McElwee was allowed to continue in his post at Athlone Institute of Technology despite health authorities, garda and Government officials being informed of allegations against him.

Mr Finlay called on the government and the Minister for Children Brendan Smith to give the guidelines a statutory basis, saying they needed to be backed by the force of law.

"We discover again and again that things go terribly wrong when these guidelines are ignored. You can ignore guidelines. You can't ignore the law. There can't be an excuse that says 'ah sure they were only guidelines and I wasn't obliged to tell the appropriate people'", he told RT's Morning Ireland radio programme.

"The Ferns inquiry recommended that the guidelines be put on a statutory basis, this latest inquiry recommends that they be put on statutory basis but they're not."

"There's going to be further disaster if these guidelines aren't given the force of law and I don't know what its going to take or what kind of terrible tragedy will have to happen for people to release that it should have happened years ago," he added.

He also called for a higher level of awareness of child protection issues, inter-agency co-operation and a willingness to share information.

Speaking on the same programme, Jim Breslin, national director of the HSE, said the guidelines were just as important as a piece of legislation.

"It's a fair expectation by the Government that we enforce guidelines and implement them using our professional judgment," he said.

He accepted that if the guidelines had been implemented properly the situation surrounding Dr McElwee would not have arisen.

 
 

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