Teachers, nurses and other State employees who deal with children will be obliged to report cases of suspected child abuse to authorities under new reforms to strengthen the child protection system.
The measure, announced by the Government today, forms part of a 99-point plan for implementing the recommendations of the Ryan report into institutional child abuse.
Other measures announced today include:
- a national memorial, to act as a reminder of the neglect and abuse of victims of child abuse, as well as consideration of a "national date of atonement"
- Limited caseloads for newly qualified social workers, as well as moves to fill 270 vacant social work posts
- Independent inspections of all residential facilities for children, including young people with disabilities and separated children seeking asylum
- Access to aftercare for young people leaving the care system until the age of 21
- Improved access to counselling for survivors of abuse
- Certificates for victims of abuse clarifying whether they have a criminal record or not
- Requiring State employees, as well as staff in services funded by the State, to implement the Children First guidelines on reporting child protection concerns. Children First are national guidelines, published a decade ago, for identifying and reporting child abuse.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews said he will take personal responsibility for ensuring the measures are implemented over the next two to three years.
The estimated cost of the reforms will be in the region of €25 million, in addition to cost-savings and management reform within the child protection system, the Minister said.
While funding has yet to be officially sanctioned by the Government, Mr Andrews said he had “complete confidence” it would be forthcoming, despite the state of the public finances.
"The damage caused by a culture that tolerated and even encouraged physical, sexual and emotional abuse for decades will not be undone by words alone,” he said. “It is by implementing this action plan that we will win back the trust of those whom we abandoned.”
The HSE said the Government’s plan to implement the recommendations of the Ryan abuse commission report would challenge its entire system “in the coming months and years”.
Welcoming the 99-point plan published by Minister for Children Barry Andrews today, the HSE said its staff “assisted closely” in drawing up the report.
“The report's recommendations are wide-ranging and their implementation will challenge our entire system in the coming months and years. The HSE will immediately begin work on how best to implement these recommendations in association with the Office of the Minister for Youth and Childrens' Affairs and other relevant partners,” a statement said.
The HSE said a considerable amount of work was already underway “to improve, modernise and strengthen services to children and families”.
In a statement tonight, the Government said it expected the religious congregations named in the Ryan commission report to offer "a substantial contribution by way of reparation for the suffering of children in residential institutions".
It has appointed a panel of three people, chaired by former Revenue chairman Frank Daly, to assess the statements of resources furnished by the relevant congregations.
