THE PUBLICATION of the damning report into the Roscommon childcare case highlights how inadequate child protection services are in the State, the chief executive of children’s voluntary support agency Cari has said.
Speaking following the publication of a Cari booklet on sexualised behaviour in children, Mary Flaherty said there were very disturbing cases passing through the Irish courts on a regular basis.
Ms Flaherty said the Irish legal system was a disaster for the victims of sexual crime, particularly young people, as it was hostile, adversarial and refused to listen to the voices of children in court.
“We are in contact with a number of mothers currently who are being forced to send their children back into situations where they are being abused,” she said. “But because it can’t be proved either to the health board or at court level, nothing is being done.”
The booklet, produced for Cari by child welfare consultant Kieran McGrath, offers advice on how to evaluate and respond to sexualised behaviour in children and young people. It was designed to assist parents, foster carers, residential carers and educators in dealing with sexualised behaviour in children. Ms Flaherty said it would have been exceptional to have parents contacting Cari about such activity about two years ago, but that it now accounts for 10 per cent of its referrals for therapy.
She said abuse can often be one cause of such behaviour but that the increasing sexualisation of society, through the internet, TV programmes and other media was also a factor.
