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	Let's Prove We're Sorry by Ending Hypocrisy By Alan Shatter Irish Independent May 27, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/lets-prove-were-sorry-by-ending-hypocrisy-1751680.html Let's end the cant and hypocrisy. What is the difference between those in charge of religious congregations and orders covering up past abuse and neglect and today's government ministers and management in the HSE covering up the dysfunctional nature of our current childcare services? What is the difference between reports and files relating to past child abuse being hidden in Rome and contemporary reports into the death of children in care being suppressed and unpublished? What is the difference between religious congregations and orders insisting that the names of alleged child abusers be kept secret, and the co-operation of childcare and health workers in inquiries into shocking failures by our childcare services being dependent on no individual being identified or criticised for their failures? What is the difference between the State and the Department of Education and its inspectors failing to properly inspect and apply regulations and guidelines to industrial schools and reformatories and taking no action when children were brutalised and abused, and the HSE failing to uniformly apply across the country our 1999 'Children First: Child Protection Guidelines' and no comprehensive assessments being undertaken on the circumstances of 6,500 children reported to be at risk? What is the difference between successive Ministers for Education over a period of 50 years failing to ensure children in institutional care were properly cared for and not victims of abuse, and today's Ministers for Health and Children failing to ensure that children with disabilities in institutional care are properly cared for, minimum standards are observed and they are not the victims of abuse and neglect? What is the difference between the members of religious orders and congregations who witnessed the abuse of children but did not themselves commit such abuse staying silent and doing nothing, and those currently working in our childcare services who daily witness its failings yet stay silent? What is the difference between the lack of transparency and accountability that pervaded our childcare services in the past, and that which hangs over them now? What is the difference between the State's "deference" towards the Church and religious orders, which the Ryan Commission determined substantially contributed to the State's failings, and the "deference" shown today by the Government and by the Minister for Children towards HSE management and the unions, associations and organisations representing HSE employees -- and which has undermined principles of accountability in our childcare services to the detriment of children? What is the difference between the conduct of religious orders in forcing the State to exclude from the Ryan Commission the identity of sexual predators and the perpetrators of abuse and the publication by the Government of the report of the inquiry team into the murder of two children by one of their parents in Monageer with essential parts of the report censored and blacked out, including recommendations made to correct failings of state agencies. What is the difference between the failure of the media during the period examined by the Ryan Commission to comprehensively report on what was happening behind the walls of our children's residential institutions and the failure of some sections of the media today to comprehensively report on the current failings of our childcare services and its willingness to uncritically publish misleading ministerial statements about the current state of our childcare services and to attach greater credibility to them than the concerns voiced by those who know the truth? It is right that we acknowledge and apologise for past horrors. It is also right that pressure is imposed on the religious orders and congregations to recognise that they have a moral obligation and duty to make a greater contribution to the redress payments made to victims. However, in addressing the issues of the past, we must not ignore the present and the future. If we do not address today's problems, the shame expressed and tears shed over past events will lack all credibility. We must not as a State continue to fail the most vulnerable children of today and tomorrow. Let's end the cant and hypocrisy.
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