There are 30,000
child protection cases every year and of these 1,500 involve children who are
the victims of 
sexual, physical or emotional abuse, the Minister for Children,
Frances Fitzgerald (pictured) has revealed.
The minister was
speaking at the Fine Gael ardfheis at the weekend.
Her comments come
after it emerged that a report into the deaths of a number of children in care
is set to reveal serious and sustained failures by the State to properly protect
115 vulnerable children
The report is set to
be released in the next number of weeks.
The minister said
that it was unacceptable that people were aware of child abuse and neglect but
failed to act.
Condemning what she
called the “shambolic child protection system” of the previous government, Ms
Fitzgerald said that the figures meant “that in recent years, thousands more
children have been neglected, assaulted, raped and humiliated,” the Irish Times
reports.
Calling for increased
awareness of the harm done to children through abuse and neglect, the Minister
said that “in many past instances of abuse, people knew but did
nothing”.
Ms Fitzgerald said
breaking the “national cycle of silence” required legislation on child
protection which was pending, a reformed system of State care and intervention
and the amendment of the Constitution to strengthen child
protection.
The Oireachtas
committee on health and children will consider the heads or initial elements of
the Children First Bill after Easter. The Minister said this legislation was
first promised in 1998 by Fianna Fáil. She pledged to have it in place by the
end of the year.
About 1,600 children
are in long-term fostering but cannot be adopted by their foster parents because
their parents are married. She said the State discriminated against children
“based on whether their parents wear wedding rings or
not”.
However,
very few children in care in Ireland are adopted each year whether their parents
are married or not.
The Minister is
awaiting the advice of the Attorney General before publishing the report into
the deaths of children in care, which was “harrowing and upsetting” and “would
show how abuse and neglect in the early years of a child’s life can be the
beginning of a journey which is bleak and troubled and
short”.
The last few years
have seen a number of reports highlighting failures in such cases.
Norah Gibbons,
director of advocacy for children’s charity Barnardos, who was part of the
review group, said in 2010 that the system for dealing with vulnerable children
was “not fit for purpose”.
Last year, it emerged
that 35 children and teenagers known to the Health Service Executive (HSE) died
between March of 2010 and, October 2011.
It was also revealed
that were 16 serious incidents involving children or adolescents known to the
HSE over the same time period.
Of those 35 deaths,
most were due to natural causes, or accidents, but causes also included drug
overdose, suicide and even homicide. The 16 cases described as serious incidents
included accidents, parental abuse or neglect, or alleged sexual
abuse.
Dr Helen Buckley, the
independent chair of the National Review Panel, which reported the findings last
year, criticised the HSE for numerous failures which led to sub-standard care in
some cases.
In a report by the
Health Information and Quality Authority last year, it emerged 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”.