The child protection supremo of the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin has left to take up a £100,000 plus job with the HSE as assistant national director for children and families.Diocesan Child Protection Director Phil Garland will take up his post with the HSE at a critical time when the country's largest diocese anxiously awaits the explosive findings of a state investigation into paedophile clergy.
A spokesperson for the HSE said that the salary range of an assistant director was between e99,166 and e122, 230.
For the past six years, Mr Garland was on secondment from the HSE and worked closely with Archbishop Martin preparing volumes of files from diocesan archives for inspection by the Commission of Investigation headed by Circuit Court judge Yvonne Murphy.
Protection
Credited with pioneering a highly professional child protection service for the diocese, Mr Garland managed all complaints of abuse and oversaw implementation of extensive child protection structures at parish and diocesan levels.
This system has a trained child protection representative in all 199 parishes, 2,100 people have taken part in the 'Keeping Safe' programme and 7,065 diocesan personnel have participated in the garda vetting process.
Paying tribute to Mr Garland, Archbishop Martin told the Irish Independent yesterday that he had always taken his advice in the best interests of children.
Archbishop Martin said the post which Mr Garland has held since September 2003 when he was appointed by then Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, will be advertised soon.
"You could say that Phil and I grew up together -- we arrived almost at the same time," said Archbishop Martin, who took over from the Cardinal in 2004. "He has been an extraordinary help to me. Our discussions at times were vehement, but I never went against his advice. He brought a unique experience to the diocese, always asking the question 'what is in the best interests of the child?'
"We worked closely together in assembling the files for the Commission. He built up a sense of confidence in dealing with the issue, and he developed a framework which has worked well."
Report
Mr Garland's return to the HSE will be a blow to the diocese which has been waiting for the High Court's direction on what contents of the Commission's report the Government can make public.
On foot of a referral from the Attorney General, the High Court last month ruled that the bulk of the report could be published, but it directed that a section relating to a former cleric who faces new criminal charges should be withheld until his trial early next year.
Mr Garland yesterday said that complainants had been coming forward regularly since they were encouraged to do so by Archbishop Martin. "The overwhelming number of them are historical," he added.
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