CHILD AWARE

LATE EDITORIALS

remembering thanks

heroic priests should not be left at the altar

Secret tapes reveal Cardinal warned victim to stay silent
Memory loss suffered by Howlin over missing vaccine files
Vulnerable children at risk being placed with unsafe carers
Psychiatric Report a Disgrace says Judge
Where will it all end?
Supreme Court Declines to hear Vatican Appeal; abuse victims' suit will proceed
Children not seen by Social Workers for 10 years
Ireland sells out children to invest in bank
Jobseekers' Benefit claimants to sign on by text
Time to reclaim law from Legal Priesthood
Church demands 2m euros fees from National Schools
Sligo (Banada) women attend Abuse Protest
Article says Indemnity was unconstitutional
Children in Care
So long Sniveller
Child Abuse is about Power
Geoffrey Robinson (Ret. Bishop) of Australia
De Facto Family not recognised
Patient Safety in HSE
Dr Rowan Williams - Archbishop of Canterbury
Fianna Fail never changes much as a Leopard never changes its spots

-----------------------------------------                                     REMEMBERING TO SAY THANK YOU

I was raised in an industrial / school for children in Galway.  It was a prison in everything but name. Like thousands of other children across the land at the time, boys and girls, I suffered under the hands of monsters that strode like maniacal despots over their very young charges. For me it would last a decade and the torment of a lifetime. There too, I observed the good among the bad, and  for them and others who share their goodness, I need to say something. They are the majority in every walk of life other wise anarchy would be the norm and the same percentages do also apply to religion.

My wife asked me recently why I never kept running from Galway after all I had been through. I replied that I remembered more the good that people did rather than the bad and could see beyond the dark granite walls that had imprisoned me. I still see that and maybe we all need reminding the good that many clergy do alongside people everywhere. In fact many do not have to think that hard to remember or know it to be so.

For me to believe either that the pigment of a persons skin can give me a clue to their good character or for me to believe that that clue will come from their religious or political beliefs will render me clueless altogether. The clues come from their words, deeds and action that are everywhere but not really noticed or acknowledged.

The good that many do should be shouted as loud as the roar of condemnation of the bad. The good are what I remember the best and what inspires me the most. They are celebrated more in song, movies, and pulp fiction than in real life. They are the un-mourned heroes of every age and lost in translation for we now call footballers heroes and humanitarians, fools. The good that people do has been more than lost in translation, it has been lost in how we define it for corruption has become the norm. It has become the norm in our elected leaders and the confusion and apathy created in the electorate in what they now see as normal.  It has been confused also by the behavior of those who give misguided support when defending the indefensible. We must learn again and see with fresh eyes the good that the many do.

It is wiser to listen more and read between the lines. Apathy is not healthy nor is the habits of a lifetime cynic. We need to celebrate the real heroes again and the many of them still living for often their only reward is our thanks. They walk lonely roads passing un-noticed as they help another. Many of these people are our priests and nuns, soldiers, and volunteer workers among others. These others cater to an infirm child or parent and would have done it anyway to a stranger. They are not fools to be pitied or derided but the force of characters most of us can only admire and inspire to but cannot do.

Give them a bow before you go to bed for the world would be a lot poorer without them and our moral compass would have rusted and decayed a long time ago. Someday too, you may need them to comfort you.

Barry Clifford, Oughterard, Galway    email: barryclifford952@gmail.com        

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The Irish Times - Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Heroic priests deserve not to be left alone at the altar

THE ITALIAN alpine village of Villaretto was drowsing under its blanket of snow when, on January 26th, 1985, the parish priest hanged himself, just before the Saturday evening Mass. He left three farewell letters, one addressed to the altar servers. It read: “Be more friendly and generous with your next priest: do not leave him alone at the altar.”

Those words have haunted me for years, for we do leave our priests alone at the altar and the loneliness of many a priest is a crucifixion.

I know, for I once was one. I left and am no longer lonely, but many truly heroic men have stayed and live their crucifixion daily, a far worse one than I ever had to endure.

The loneliness of many priests today is infinitely crueller than anything I experienced 30 years ago. Just to give one example: last month a priest friend of mine in Dublin was talking to a boy after Sunday Mass, when the boy’s father came up to him and said: “Father, I’d rather you stayed away from my son.”

The tiny handful of evil-doers among the clergy, along with the incredibly crass, self-protecting decisions of church leaders, all the way up to the Vatican, have made life hell for many priests.

Have you noticed how few black suits and Roman collars you see on the streets today? Understandably, for no one wants to be spat at and there are some among the public who would just do that.

“Many priests I know are currently short of hope,” writes Fr Tom McCarthy OP in Religious Life Review . “I have spoken with some, still active in ministry, who describe the situation in which they find themselves as ‘hopeless’. Yes, they frequently say Mass and hear confessions just occasionally, but they speak of being aware something is badly broken in the church. And they are not sure it can be fixed.”

Few lay people realise what priests are up against today. I know of one very eminent priest, a brilliant scholar who devoted every moment of his spare time to the care of deprived young people.

One disgruntled woman made an accusation against him, alleging that he had interfered with her years before. The bishop immediately removed him from his work and he was forbidden to have any connection with the young people. This continued for three years, until he was dying in hospital. Two weeks before he died, a letter arrived from the bishop, apologising and saying that the woman had admitted to lying.

According to sociologist Max Weber, institutions invariably put their own protection before all else. In the old days the church protected itself by moving errant priests around, hiding their crimes and thus compounding the evil.

Nowadays the church has gone to the opposite extreme: it protects itself by presuming guilt and removing the priest on the merest accusation, which means that every priest in the land lives in perpetual fear of a false accusation. It is hard to imagine the suffering this must entail. Add to this the incredible amount of overwork laid on so many priests, many now in their 60s and 70s, who have to circuit-ride several parishes because of the scarcity of priests. Furthermore, add in their anxiety for the future, with so few younger men coming to take their place. And yet, in spite of that, they carry on and continue with such incredible devotion and generosity.

The well-known ones are only the tip of the iceberg. I myself know many such.

Only recently I met our own curate to arrange a Mass. It was clear from incoming calls and diary entries that he was run off his feet, and I remarked so. His reply: “Thank God I’m able to do it.”

So if there is talk of a new Association of Irish Priests, it is hardly fair to sneer at it as a mere clerical trade union. I think they intend something quite other. Remember how the apostles gathered in the upper room after Jesus left them. They were lonely and in fear.

If I were a priest today, I would long for some care and mutual support from my brethren.

Years ago I discovered that many resigned priests were living in loneliness and isolation from one another. Some of us got together to form an association called Leaven and, in the years that followed, it changed all our lives astonishingly. We were no longer alone.

I believe that Ireland’s active priests will achieve something similar, and let us remember who descended upon the disciples when they gathered together in that upper room.

Meanwhile, let us not leave our priests alone at the altar.

David Rice is a former Dominican who now directs the Killaloe Hedge School of Writing, running weekend beginner workshops in fiction and non-fiction (killaloe.ie/khs)

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Secret tapes reveal cardinal warned victim to stay silent
Shock recordings of Belgian primate latest abuse bombshell to hit church

By Tom Heneghan in Paris
Monday August 30 2010

Leaked tapes of Belgium's Cardinal Godfried Danneels urging a victim not to reveal he was sexually abused by a bishop are some of the most damaging documents to emerge in the scandal rocking the Catholic Church worldwide.

On the tapes, made secretly by the victim and published in two Belgian newspapers at the weekend, the former primate of Belgium is heard exhorting him to accept a private apology or wait one year until the bishop retired before making his case public.

The meeting took place on April 8, at a time when the Vatican was under fire for allegedly covering up similar abuse cases in other countries.

A spokesman for Cardinal Danneels (77) denied the once popular archbishop of Brussels wanted to cover up the case -- which led to the sudden resignation of then Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe (73) later that month -- but the tapes show the cardinal arguing for silence.

Belgian church spokesman Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed the transcripts in Flemish dailies 'De Standaard' and 'Het Nieuwsblad' were genuine.

The church has been hit over the past year by two detailed government reports on sexual abuse in this country and waves of abuse allegations in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. Five bishops have quit due to the scandals.

The Belgian tapes stand out as a rare verbatim record of how a leading Catholic prelate tried to persuade a victim, in this case a 42-year-old nephew of Vangheluwe, to keep quiet.

They emerged as a judicial probe into the scandal teetered on the edge of collapse after reports that a June 24 police raid on church offices and Cardinal Danneels's apartment to seize files and computers was illegal and the documents could not be used.

In their one-on-one meeting, the victim asks for help. The cardinal responds by urging him not to go public.

"The bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait," the cardinal says. "I don't think you'd do yourself or him a favour by shouting this from the rooftops."

Cardinal Danneels warns the victim against trying to blackmail the church and urges him to seek forgiveness, accept a private apology from the bishop and not drag "his name through the mud".

"He has dragged my whole life through the mud, from five until 18 years old," says the victim. "Why do you feel so sorry for him and not for me?"

In a second tape, Cardinal Danneels and Vangheluwe meet the victim and one of his relatives. The bishop apologises and says he has searched for years for a way to make up for his misdeeds. "This is unsolvable," the relative replies. "You've torn our family completely apart."

Vangheluwe resigned on April 23. The newspaper said the victim decided to publish the tapes to counter allegations of blackmail.


Files go missing in child vaccine inquiry
Howlin can't remember probe or its findings

Saturday August 21 2010
Patricia McDonagh
Irish Independent


The deputy chairman of the Dail was last night at the centre of a new controversy over child vaccine trials.
As Labour Health Minister in 1993, Brendan Howlin assured victims that an inquiry had found they suffered no ill effects from the experimental medical tests.

But last night mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the files relating to the inquiry, Mr Howlin admitted he did not remember the probe or its findings.

The Department of Health said it was searching department archives in a bid to locate the documents. "Until all the files are retrieved, the department cannot say if the results of the inquiry exist," a spokesman said.
The claims follow yesterday's revelations in the Irish Independent that some victims of the trials are preparing a class action against the drugs giant responsible for the trials.
New documents reveal Mr Howlin's private secretary told victims the minister was "satisfied" there was no risk to the children subjected to the trials in the 1960s and 1970s. This was based on an inquiry supposedly carried out by the Department of Health.


Vulnerable children at risk of being placed with unsafe carers

THE EXTENT of the failures in the foster care system has been highlighted in an unpublished report which reveals that vulnerable children in the southeast are at risk of being placed with unsafe carers.

This internal audit conducted by the Health Service Executive follows a number of other critical reports which highlighted major problems in childcare in the Dublin and Cork areas.

This latest report, completed in December of last year, found:

No evidence of formal assessments of foster families or Garda clearance in up to a quarter of cases examined, increasing the risk of unsuitable people working as foster carers.

Inadequate state of foster care files and records, which may have legal implications if information is required by the courts.

Failure to comply with national minimum standards over reviews for children in care, increasing the risk that foster carers are being paid for sub-standard care.

At least 20 per cent of children in foster care without an allocated social worker.

Transactions over some payments to foster carers not being conducted in an accurate or transparent manner.

The auditors noted that an ongoing theme during their discussions was how a lack of resources was impacting on social workers’ ability to comply with legislation and minimum standards.

In addition, foster carers themselves were frustrated at the lack of support available to them.

“It was evident from our examination of the case files that foster carers continually voice their concerns over such gaps, with a common theme being children in care who have not been allocated a social worker,” the internal audit states.

It also noted a number of control and procedural weaknesses over payments to foster carers. In total, almost €12 million was paid to foster carers in the southeast during 2008. The basic weekly allowance for a foster carer is €325 per child under 12 and €352 for a teenager.

In response to the findings, HSE management told auditors that a fundamental review of all its files was under way to address any shortcomings.

It said a special group had been established to improve the management of childcare files. In addition, management pledged to ensure all policies and procedures would be brought into line with national foster care standards.

A HSE spokeswoman said yesterday that since the audit report was completed, the executive now requires that foster carers undergo preliminary assessments and Garda checks in all cases, including emergency placements.


€3,800 psychiatric report a disgrace, says judge

Conor Gallagher
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A JUDGE has described as "an absolute disgrace", the €3,800 cost of a psychiatric report for a prisoner who scammed a man of €380.

And separately, a second judge has threatened to refuse certification for any psychiatric reports paid for under the legal aid scheme which he finds to be "premature and unnecessary". 

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard a psychiatric report costing €3,800 was ordered for Stephen Mangan, aged 35, of Primrose Gardens, Darndale, who was convicted of scamming a man out of €380 on Ebay and using a computer to make false documents. 

The cost included one session with the man to assess his psychiatric state and was paid for by the state. 

Judge Frank O’Donnell said the report was of no use in deciding a sentence and contained no information that couldn’t have been given to the man’s legal team. 

"These reports are being ordered like confetti at a wedding. They should be informed of my view that there is absolutely nothing in that that assists me whatsoever," the judge said. 

He expressed disbelief when told the cost of the report and that it comprised one session with Mangan. "You’re not serious," he told Cormac Quinn, defending, when told the cost. "That’s an absolute disgrace." 
Mr Quinn said the psychologist spent a considerable amount of time with Mangan and carried out a number of tests. 



A second Circuit Court judge yesterday also spoke against the practice of "prematurely" ordering psychiatric reports paid for under the legal aid scheme. 

Judge Desmond Hogan was speaking at the sentencing of a Nigerian man for possession of just over €2,000 of cocaine. A psychiatric report was handed into court by the man’s defence team which was prepared before evidence had been heard in the case. 
The judge said he found the reports an unnecessary cost to be borne by the state in a lot of cases and had little doubt that the Probation Service could provide an adequate report at little cost.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, July 21, 2010

WHERE WILL IT ALL END?

In the United States 10,667 people have made complaints of child sexual abuse between 1950 and 2002 against 4,392 priests.

81% of the victims were male

22% were younger than the age of 10

51% were between the ages of 11 and 14

27% were between the ages to 15 to 17 years.

One priest, Rev. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974, molested over 200 young boys.

Pope Benedict, learned of the accusations, did nothing, and stopped the prosecution of Murphy after he made a personal appeal to the future pope asking for mercy. Murphy was quietly moved to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes and schools. He died in 1998, still a priest.

News Correspondents discovered a church document kept secret in the Vatican archives for 40 years that explained the secrecy and silence. Written in 1962, it calls for complete secrecy on the subject of cleric sexual abuse, the unspoken rule became written at last. This is part of what it says: "in the most secretive way...restrained by a perpetual silence...and everyone (including the victim) ...is to observe the strictest secret, which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office...under the penalty of excommunication"

Larry Drivon, a lawyer for child abuse victims, calls this self-condemning text a blueprint for deception. It is an instruction manual on how to deceive and protect paedophiles, and to avoid the truth coming out."

A poll conducted from March 29 to April 1, 2010 found the pope's unfavourable rating jumped to 24 per cent, up from a mere four per cent in 2006, and his favourable rating plummeted to 27 percent.

In Ireland, priests and nuns had terrorized children in Catholic institutions for decades.  Thousands of children were convicted of petty crimes such as skipping school, stealing candy, being the child of an unwed mother, or just being poor, were sent to Catholic-run work houses where beatings, starvation, sexual abuse, humiliation and verbal barrage were epidemics until they were closed in the 1990's. In a thirty six year period alone, 170,000 children spent an average of seven years each in these hell holes. I was one of them.

The Christian Brothers, an Irish order that ran several boys Prisons, had child molesters and sadists on their staff. However, none of the institutions would reveal the names of either victims or predators. On the wider scale of Church abuse in Ireland, priests, nuns, Christian Brothers, Bishops and Cardinals, had the support of politicians, the Police, and the full weight of the state behind them. They still do.

When it came out this year that Cardinal Sean Brady was involved in forcing children to swear an oath not to reveal their sexual abuse to anyone, he refused to resign. Instead he now champions himself as the best protector of children. This was the oath the children were forced to sign:

I will never directly or indirectly, by means of a nod, or of a word, by writing, or in any other way, and under whatever type of pretext, even for the most urgent and most serious cause (even) for the purpose of a greater good, commit anything against this fidelity to the secret, unless dispensation has been expressly given to me by the Supreme Pontiff.

The priest who abused the children went on to abuse many more because of that oath before he was arrested. This is what Brian Cowen, Ireland Prime Minister, said about the whole affair:

"The leadership been given is that clearly it is important that the state maintains its base and the Church maintains its base-it is not a question for the state to get involved in Church matters nor the Church to get involved in state matters"

One bishop said he did not even know the rape and sodomy of children was a crime. This is what he said:

We all considered sexual abuse of children as a moral evil but had no understanding or idea of its criminal nature. It was not necessary to worry about the effects on the youngsters. Either they would not remember or that they would grow out of it.  Archbishop Weakland.

In Germany there have been over 300 accusations of sexual or physical abuse by catholic priests in 18 of the 27 dioceses. Allegations include the abuse of more than 170 children by priests at a Jesuit school and three Catholic schools in Bavaria, and at the prestigious Regensburg Domspatzen school boys’ choir that was directed for 30 years by the Pope's own brother. And then, just this March, Father Peter Hullermann, was convicted of molesting boys during his time in the archdiocese of Munich

A poll stated that almost a fifth of German Catholics have considered leaving the Church because of the abuse and only 17% of Germans now trust the Church as an institution.

In Italy, 67 former students of Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf named 24 priests, brothers and lay religious men who they accused of all forms of abuse.

Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Malta and the Netherlands also Germany, Ireland & USA. 

The numbers continue to rise, there is still State collusion, the cover up goes on, children still suffer, victims still do not have closure.

Where will it all end?

Barry Clifford 

May 2010 

Supreme Court declines to hear Vatican appeal; abuse victims' suit will proceed

June 28, 2010

The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the Vatican’s appeal of an Oregon judge’s decision allowing a sex-abuse victim to proceed with a lawsuit against the Vatican.

The Supreme Court made no decision on the case, and no comment on the merits of the arguments, but simply decided not to add the Vatican’s appeal to the crowded docket of cases to be argued before the high court. The effect of the Supreme Court decision is to send the lawsuit back to the Oregon court for discovery and an eventual trial. The lawsuit has been moving through the courts since 2002.

The Vatican had argued that the case should not proceed, because the Holy See is immune from criticism as a sovereign state. But the judge in the Oregon case ruled that the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act would not apply if the plaintiff can demonstrate that the priest who abused him was acting as an employee of the Vatican. The judge found—and an appeals court agreed—that there was sufficient evidence to proceed on the basis of that argument. Jeffrey Lena, an attorney representing the Holy See, pointed out that the argument has not yet been resolved, and expressed confidence that the court would eventually recognize that a priest is not a Vatican employee. The plaintiff’s lawyer, the ubiquitous Jeffrey Anderson, thought otherwise; he described the Supreme Court’s inaction as “huge, really huge.”

The Oregon case involves a man who was abused in the 1960s by the late Father Andrew Ronan, who had allegedly been moved to Oregon to escape abuse accusations in his native Ireland.

In a separate legal action, the Vatican has asked a federal judge to reject a plaintiff’s request to take a deposition from Pope Benedict XVI in a Kentucky case. In that case the plaintiff argues that bishops are Vatican employees. Jeffrey Lena, who is representing the Vatican in the Kentucky case as well, said that the plaintiff’s arguments are “speculative confabulations” mixed with conspiracy theories, and points out that thousands of documents provided by the Louisville archdiocese have yielded no evidence of any Vatican effort to cover up abuse.

 
CHILDREN NOT SEEN BY SOCIAL WORKERS FOR 10 YEARS

Children in State care have not had a visit from a social worker for up to 10 years or more.

Record-keeping was so poor that inspectors have had difficulties establishing an accurate number for children in foster care.

There were just over 800 children in foster care in these areas late last year, well over 200 had placements with unapproved foster parents for significant periods or were without care plans.

Children as young as five were placed in supported lodgings designed for older teenage children.

Many files were incomplete, incorrect or just simply missing.

In an internal letter last year, head of HIQA Tracey Cooper warned HSE Chief Executive Brendan Drumm, Health Minister Mary Harney and equally inept man, Barry Andrews that the findings were very serious for children in its care. “These issues give rise to further concern as to how the HSE is able to assure itself that the necessary systems and processes are in place to safeguard and manage the quality and safety of children in care. The HSE has no assurance that the carers are suitable people, children have no opportunity to complain if they are unhappy or unsafe,”

She also warned that the HSE is in breach of at least 10 separate statutory duties relating to childcare standards in the Dublin area alone.

Social-work staff has a statutory responsibility to visit children in foster care at least once every six months. The audit of foster-care files found that during this period of time most children had not been visited for up to four years (223). A further 20 had not received a visit for between five and 10 years or more.

The HSE said “Progress on this is now well under way. The practice of placing children with non-relative unapproved carers has ceased”. Where child-protection concerns existed, the HSE says it has reviewed the cases and taken action.

Now that that is all sorted out what ever happened about those missing or deceased children again……..

Barry Clifford         June   2010

IRELAND SELLS OUT CHILDREN TO INVEST IN BANK

The Daniel McAnaspies and Tracey Fays didn’t matter when we had the money. Let’s stop pretending that they matter when we don’t. 
writes FINTAN O’TOOLE 

WHO CARES whether it’s 23 children who have died in the care of the State or 37 or 200?

Who cares how many Daniel McAnaspies are out there now, illiterate, vulnerable, drifting towards one form of oblivion or another? Of course all of this stuff is terrible and of course it’s a disgrace to our society. But there’s really no point in upsetting ourselves about it.

Anyone who wants a good cry should rent a three-hankie movie. It will be just as effective, and a lot cheaper, than going through the motions of pretending that we, collectively, have the slightest intention of eliminating the conditions in which children die, or are sexually exploited or just grow up without the basic requirements for happiness and self-respect.

There is one incontrovertible truth in this society – money. So consider two sums of money. Last Friday it emerged, almost casually, that the State has put €100 million into the Educational Building Society and intends to put in a further €775 million. There was no debate about this, no cost/benefit analysis, no parliamentary oversight. Sure, €875 million isn’t even a billion and billions are the only currency we recognise nowadays.

So here’s another figure: €15 million. It is the sum total of State funds allocated this year to the implementation of the Ryan commission’s recommendations on the protection of vulnerable children. It will, in theory at least, pay for the employment of an extra 200 social workers to provide a basic out-of-hours service for children at risk. Overall, the Government is committed to spending €25 million on carrying out the Ryan implementation plan. That’s one thirty-fifth of what was pledged to EBS on Friday.

So let’s be honest about this – our collective capacity for outrage at the treatment of children is extremely limited and very hard to sustain. We know, for example, that 47 children who arrived in Ireland as “unaccompanied minors” went missing from the care of the HSE last year. Since 2000, a total of 501 such children have gone missing and just 67 have been traced.

Or consider another stark figure. Last year, 155 children were admitted to adult psychiatric units because there were no other facilities available for them. This barbaric practice would have us up in arms if we learned about it in a TV documentary about Albania or Iran. Or here’s another figure: between 800 and 1,000 kids every year don’t even make it from primary school to secondary school. But such things barely flit across our collective consciousness.

Why not? Because if we were to take them seriously, we would have to spend money to do something about them. If we were to sustain our sense of shock and sorrow when another kid dies in State care or gets placed in an adult psychiatric ward or disappears into a brothel or drifts into homelessness, drug abuse and prison, we would have to pay a price. Giving kids a chance is an expensive undertaking. It is a labour-intensive and long-term business. Some improvements in services could undoubtedly be achieved by better management or more co-ordination. But the hard reality is that services are chaotic because we don’t spend enough on them.

And this is not just true of crisis childcare. We know that one of the key things that gives kids from difficult backgrounds a decent chance in life is early childhood education. But we won’t spend the money on it. We give it 0.2 per cent of GDP, compared to the EU average of 0.5 per cent.

And conversely, when money has to be saved, kids are always in the front line. Cuts in welfare payments, in educational supports and in health provision have been disproportionately aimed at children. Having failed in its stated aims of eliminating child poverty during the boom years, the Government is now knowingly increasing it. The cuts in payments to one-parent families slipped through on Friday by Éamon Ó Cuív, for example, will have a direct impact on children in their teenage years.

The reality is that, in order to protect the most vulnerable children and to give those in poor families a decent chance, we would have to expand the State. We would have to employ more social workers, develop more sheltered accommodation, invest more in early education and support families who are struggling. But that in turn would have profound implications for the direction of Government policy. It would make it impossible to find the resources for what has been identified as the national priority – money for institutions like EBS.

We are fooling ourselves if we think that anything beyond basic crisis management is on the cards for children at risk – not just this year or next year but for the next 10 years. The decisions have been made, the priorities identified. We know where the very limited resources this State can mobilise will be going, and it’s not towards the Daniel McAnaspies and Tracey Fays of this world.

They didn’t matter when we had the money. Let’s stop pretending that they matter when we don’t.

Irish Times   I June    2010

SOCIAL WELFARE CLAIMANTS TO SIGN ON BY TEXT

By Stephen Rogers
Friday, May 28, 2010

JUST a year after it said social welfare recipients should produce photo ID because it was losing millions in fraudulent claims, the Government is planning to let claimants "sign on" by text.

In a move which Fine Gael TDs say will leave the system wide open to fraud, the Department for Social Protection has awarded a €1m contract to Hewlett Packard in Kildare to "develop and support a mobile phone-based solution for dynamic selection of and self-certification by claimants of unemployment benefits".

To qualify for jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance, a jobseeker must fulfil a number of conditions, including being available for and genuinely seeking work. At regular intervals they must make a declaration that they are still unemployed, available for and actively seeking work.

At present this certification process is done by attending the social welfare local office. However, the department’s new project "examines the potential to develop an additional channel for Jobseeker’s certification via the mobile phone".

It said selected customers would be invited to register for and avail of this service, which would be rolled out on a phased basis, once a "solution performance evaluation" process has been completed.

"This service will potentially allow people who receive Jobseeker’s Allowance and Jobseeker’s Benefit to complete the certification process by mobile phone," a spokeswoman said.

"Potentially the service will provide an alternative to the requirement for Jobseeker’s Allowance and Jobseeker’s Benefit claimants to attend their Social Welfare Local Office to certify and it will provide improved customer service and also reduce the departmental resources required to administer certification."

Cost savings would accrue from reducing the effort required to certify jobseekers at the department’s local offices, meaning staff would be freed to concentrate on client, claim, payment and control issues. However, Fine Gael’s social and family affairs spokes-woman Olwyn Enright said the proposed scheme left "huge room" for fraud, for example claiming while not even in the country.

"Why did they bother changing the legislation so that new people have to sign on and be visible?"

Last year a spot check found up to 10% of dole claims were fraudulent – mostly made by, or in the name of, people living outside of Ireland. At the time it was decided photographic identification would be required of the growing number of people collecting the dole and other social welfare payments.

Hewlett Packard has refused to comment on the new scheme.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, 
May 28, 2010


TIME TO RECLAIM LAW FROM LEGAL PRIESTHOOD

VINCENT BROWNE 

The way in which the people’s laws are framed makes them a plaything of the legal classes.

THE VERY last Act passed by the Oireachtas, which is available on the Irish Statute website, is the Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety Act 2010.

Section 3 of this Act states (please bear with me, for there is a point to this excruciation):

“The Act of 1999 is amended (a) in section 2(1) by inserting the following definition after the definition of “natural gas undertaking”: “ ‘petroleum undertaking’ has the meaning given to it by section 13A(1);” (b) in section 6 by inserting the following after subsection (2): “(3) Proceedings for an offence under Part IIA of this Act committed in any part of – (a) the licensed area (within the meaning of section 13A) to which subparagraph (i) or (ii), or both, of paragraph (a) of the definition of ‘licensed area’ relates, or( b) a designated area, may be taken, and the offence may for all incidental purposes be treated, as having been committed in any place in the State.”, (c) by inserting the following section after section 9K: “Functions of Commission under Part IIA relating to petroleum safety. 9L. – In addition to the functions conferred on it by section 9, the Commission has the functions specified in Part IIA relating to petroleum safety.”, (d) by inserting the following Part after Part II: (and more of the same)”.

Could any normal person understand this? Even someone afflicted with a qualification in law? It is not intended to be intelligible to anybody but legal nerds, who have a vested interest in such intelligibility, for it provides them with an income and a status.

Isn’t there something odd that the laws, by which we govern ourselves, are largely incomprehensible to us, the people, in whose name the laws are enacted? Actually it is even worse than that, for many (most?) of the laws are incomprehensible to the elected representatives who enact them and to whom we subcontract our self-government. Worse still, we have a legal priesthood who divine what it is we have meant by the Acts passed in our name, and what it is our grandfathers and grandmothers meant by the Constitution, enacted 73 years ago. And this priesthood expresses itself in language and at such length that the majority of the self-governing people could not possibly understand.

We supposedly live in a democratic society, in which the people are the sovereign power. Not the government, not the President, not any monarch, nor any priest or cardinal, nor any of the legal priesthood dressed up in Gilbert and Sullivan costumes, or even the ones not so dressed up (the latter are called solicitors and wear dark suits and waistcoats, often with a silk handkerchief flopping out of their top pocket, as a status accessory).

Ten years ago the Law Reform Commission published Report on Statutory Drafting and Interpretation: Plain Language and the Law. It recommended the use of plain language in Acts of the Oireachtas (“sentences should be as close to common English usage as possible”), no sentences being longer than 23 words, and avoidance of Latin or French phrases and words and of other obscure formulations.

They might also have insisted that when a previous Act is being amended, the wording of the previous section is published followed the wording of the proposed amendment, so that any normal person (in this instance “normal person” includes judges and lawyers) can understand clearly what is being done.

Which brings us to judgments of the High Court, and particularly of the Supreme Court. In literary terms, these judgments have got worse since the invention and use of dictation devices. It is obvious that many judgments are dictated, and little effort is made subsequently to edit and make sense of the resultant transcripts.

There was a judgment of the Supreme Court issued a few months ago in a case on whether Portmarnock golf club could be deprived of their drinking licence because they excluded women from membership of the club. One of the judgments in this case, that of Adrian Hardiman, ran to 20,625 words. Had he been required to read the judgment, as used to be the practice on the Supreme Court, it would have taken him almost two hours (at 180 words a minute). It was replete with lengthy extracts from previous judgments of the court, in one instance a lengthy passage repeated verbatim. There were protracted diversions into other areas to accommodate swipes at various targets, including a Canadian judge.

Why is it then that we go along with the codology of the legal mumbo-jumbo in which our laws are enacted and in which our legal priesthood expresses itself at such enormous length? If the laws are ours and the legal priesthood constitutes the interpreters of the law and the Constitution, how is it that it is OK for the laws and the interpretations of them to turn out to be so inaccessible to the sovereign people?

At the heart of this, of course, is a contempt for the populace – the sovereign power – although the formal language defers rhetorically every now and again to the ideal of democracy. The contempt is founded on the presumption that the law actually is the plaything of lawyers.

We should not have it.

IRISH TIMES     May  2010

CHURCH DEMANDS €2m FEES FROM NATIONAL SCHOOLS 

Cash-strapped principals must pay new €2m charge

By Edel Kennedy

Monday May 24 2010

WHILE Daniel McAnaspie was lying murdered in a drain, the Health Service Executive was busy juggling numbers.

In March, it threw the balls up in the air and came up with 20. But then it juggled a little more and settled on 23.

And when McAnaspie's body was found this month, it had to push that figure to 24.

But to date nobody knows how many children have died while in State care because the HSE has not added up the numbers.

The discrepancy in the numbers from the body charged with caring for vulnerable children worried Children's Minister Barry Andrews and he launched a review of the deaths of children in care.

Yesterday, reports indicated the figure could be as high as 200.

On March 8, Mr Andrews appointed Geoffrey Shannon, the rapporteur on child protection, and Norah Gibbons, director of advocacy with Barnardos, to the independent group.

Although given a deadline of six months, the review group is still waiting to begin its work because the HSE has yet not compiled a final list of deaths.

The group has been asked to examine existing information on deaths of children in care.

Information

In relation to children other than those who died from natural causes, they will examine existing reports completed by the HSE and, based upon this information, provide an overall report.

It will provide information on each child and the circumstances leading up to their death, and examine the State's involvement in their care.

The setting up of the review was announced just days after FINE GAEL leaked a report into the death of TRACY FAY, who was just 14 when she was taken into the care of the then Eastern Health Board. She died on the streets of Dublin in January 2002 after a drugs overdose.

Mr Andrews insisted the damning report was not suppressed and said the leaking of the report was "carefully choreographed to cause embarrassment".

A number of other children who died while in care have also reached the headlines over the years.

David Foley (17), Kim O'Donovan (15), Michelle Bray (14), Danny Talbot (19), Melissa Mahon (14) and Daniel McAnaspie (17) all died while in the care of the HSE.

When setting up the review group the minister asked the HSE to provide a list of all relevant cases at the earliest possible date.

However, yesterday he confirmed to the Irish Independent that he has not yet received an update from the HSE.

Irish Independent

SO LONG SNIVELLER
By Eamonn Sweeney

Children in State care have not had a visit from a social worker for up to 10 years or more;

Record-keeping was so poor that inspectors have had difficulties establishing an accurate number for children in foster care;

There were just over 800 children in foster care in these areas late last year, well over 200 had placements with unapproved foster parents for significant periods or were without care plans.

Children as young as five were placed in supported lodgings designed for older teenage children.

Many files were incomplete, incorrect or just simply missing.

In an internal letter last year, head of HIQA Tracey Cooper warned HSE Chief Executive Brendan Drumm, Health Minister Mary Harney and equally inept man, Barry Andrews that the findings were very serious for children in its care. “These issues give rise to further concern as to how the HSE is able to assure itself that the necessary systems and processes are in place to safeguard and manage the quality and safety of children in care. The HSE has no assurance that the carers are suitable people, children have no opportunity to complain if they are unhappy or unsafe,”

She also warned that the HSE is in breach of at least 10 separate statutory duties relating to childcare standards in the Dublin area alone.

Social-work staff has a statutory responsibility to visit children in foster care at least once every six months. The audit of foster-care files found that during this period of time most children had not been visited for up to four years (223). A further 20 had not received a visit for between five and 10 years or more.

The HSE said “Progress on this is now well under way. The practice of placing children with non-relative unapproved carers has ceased”. Where child-protection concerns existed, the HSE says it has reviewed the cases and taken action.

Now that that is all sorted out what ever happened about those missing or deceased children again……..

Barry Clifford         June   2010