Speaking yesterday at
the Merriman School, Ms O’Rourke noted that the Taoiseach had gotten “great
kudos” for his speech condemning the Church over its failures in handling
clerical sexual abuse of children.

“Rhetoric is great
and we have had startling expressions of this by Enda Kenny in Dáil Éireann.
Again, a speech from which he gained great kudos, but then on reflection the
doubts creep in,” she said.

No similar condemnation had been heard in the wake of
recently-revealed social work reports, exposing the Health Service Executive’s
failure to protect vulnerable children, she pointed out.

“Where were the loud
cries of condemnation . . . when these reports emerged? There was only a deadly
silence.”

A recent report by
the Health Information and Quality Authority showed that some children were
being placed by the HSE with foster parents who were not properly vetted.

The report into the
HSE in Dublin found “significant deficiencies in the vetting, assessment and
approval of carers, particularly relative carers” and “serious concerns in
relation to child protection practices and the assessment of child protection
concerns”.

A report in the Irish
Times last week showed that fewer than 15 per cent of the convicted sex
offenders on the sex offenders register are being properly
monitored.

Last year 158
convicted sex offenders, out of 1,100, were supervised by the Probation and Welfare Service,
according to figures obtained by the paper.

And a further report
in that paper says that social workers have claimed that they are unable to
follow up potentially serious reports of suspected abuse or neglect due to heavy
workloads and under-staffing.

Meanwhile, the
Children’s Ombudsman, Emily Logan, and child protection expert Geoffrey Shannon,
have consistently complained that Children First, is not being properly
implemented by State organizations, including the
HSE.

Shannon
is currently conducting an investigation in the deaths of 200 minors in the last
ten years who were in the care of the HSE or in contact with HSE care
services.

Norah Gibbons, head
of advocacy at children’s charity Barnardos said last year that the HSE’s child
protection service was “not fit for purpose”.

Ms O’Rourke also
criticized the Government for not yet
holding the proposed children’s rights referendum.