IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Nothing is more important than protecting our children.
So begins Kathleen O’Toole, head of the Garda Inspectorate, in her review of the force’s response to child sexual abuse.
Yet the Ferns, Dublin, Cloyne and Ryan reports revealed occasions when gardaí were more concerned with protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church or shielding themselves from the hassle of a potentially difficult investigation.
Chief Inspector O’Toole frankly acknowledges those failings, not only historic but, more importantly, current. On communication between the agencies tasked with child protection, she states: “Effective collaboration still appears to be the exception and not the rule.” One example is the failure to complete joint action sheets between the HSE and the gardaí when a concern about child sexual abuse is reported. In the Dublin Metropolitan Area, only 1% of those concerns resulted in a joint action sheet. Across all six Garda regions, the completion rate averaged just 23%.
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