REACTION: THE STATE should stop dragging its feet
and put in place measures taking responsibility for the safety of
children, victims’ group One in Four has said.
Speaking following
the publication of the report, One in Four director Maeve Lewis urged
the Government to enshrine the rights of the child in the Constitution
and to ensure child protection services were resourced and consistent
nationwide.
“The State must stop procrastinating and immediately
put in place measures so that it can take proper responsibility for the
safety of Irish children,” she said.
Ms Lewis said investigations
had now shown failures in the Ferns, Dublin and Cloyne dioceses.
She
said there was no reason to believe that the other 23 dioceses would be
any different.
However, she said the Cloyne investigation was
differentfrom those completed before it as it documented abuse right up
to the present day and still highlighted the Catholic Church was not in
compliance with its own or the State’s child safety guidelines.
“We
live in a different country when the Government Ministers launching
this report have stated quite unequivocally that they can no longer
trust the word of Catholic bishops on whether they are in compliance
with measures.”
Ms Lewis said she was concerned that abuse victims
not in contact with support groups like One in Four were not informed
of the report’s publication.
She said she had met one Cloyne victim who had not been given a chance to read or prepare for the document’s release.
Abuse
victim and campaigner Andrew Madden said the report had proven again
that the Catholic Church could not be trusted with the safety and
protection of children. He said it was clear the diocese of Cloyne was
never “genuinely committed” to the guidelines agreed in the 1996 Irish
Bishops Conference framework document.
Mr Madden said he had long
been concerned about a qualification in the document for stating that
cases should be reported where it was “known or suspected” a religious
had “actually” abused a child.
He said it was unacceptable that
the National Board for Safeguarding Children, the Catholic Church’s
child safety watchdog, could not move child protection concerns into the
public domain without the consent of bishops.
“Imagine Hiqa being similarly constrained by the HSE,” he said.
Mr
Madden said the papal nuncio should be removed from the position as
head of the diplomatic corp here to demonstrate his failure to
co-operate with the commission was not appropriate.
“We need to
send a strong message about our anger that bishops led people to believe
that they were implementing the 1996 guidelines while all the time they
and the Vatican were aware of the fact that the Vatican had effectively
told them not to do so.”
Ms Lewis acknowledged that resources
were scarce given the State’s economic problems but said victims of
abuse must be offered the necessary support.
She said the National
Counselling Service had a waiting list of more than 1,000 and there was
an eight-month wait for the therapy services One in Four offered.