State blamed for ignoring plea to re-establish missing people helpline
The National Missing Persons’ Helpline, established under the auspices of the now defunct Victim Support, was withdrawn last March.
It had been hoped that the garda supported helpline, set up on a trial basis by the Department of Justice in October 2002, would be the first step towards establishing a full missing person’s service in line with other jurisdictions.
When the helpline was launched Justice Minister Michael McDowell admitted that Ireland was lagging behind other countries in providing such a service.
“We are learning. It is strange that we have not got to this stage before now, but it (the service) is a very positive step,” he declared at the time.
The minister has now confirmed, however, that the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime, which he established last March, rejected an application for €71,000 made by the Missing Persons Helpline in April and offered €25,000 instead.
The helpline declined the offer, which was less than 40% of the €65,000 funding available when it was launched in 2002, and insisted it would only accept the full amount sought.
Founder of Missing in Ireland Support Service (www.miss.ie), Dermot Browne, believes that missing person support groups wanting to set up a helpline are being “fobbed off”.
Mr Browne, who established MISS in 2003 after a 13-week search for his missing son, said his organisation had also applied to the commission for funding to set up a helpline.
“A figure of €25,000 was also mentioned to me as being available during a conversation I had with a person who worked for the commission but I indicated to her that it was not enough and it was never officially offered to me.
“I do not mind who runs the helpline as long as there is one there and it is run properly.”
Mr Brown had reckoned in his submission that it would cost around €100,000 to set up and run a helpline with paid staff during the first year.
“That estimate was just a stab in the dark made at short notice. If it could be run for any less money, the leftover would be returned,” he pointed out.
He understood that another person who submitted a similar proposal also indicated that €25,000 was not enough and they planned to use volunteers to operate it.
Most people who go missing turn up safe and well but there are some cases that remain unresolved for several years. Last month is the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Trevor Deely, from Naas, Co Kildare, who went missing after attending a Christmas office party.
In a bid to help trace the thousands of people who go missing every year RTÉ is now featuring photos of missing persons on the first Friday of every month with its Prayer at Bedtime.
Mr Browne said people in his position desperately needed to have someone they could turn to for help and support and that was made all the more difficult because of the absence of a helpline.
“The waiting is the worst part,” he said. “It really is beyond the capacity of most unaffected people to completely comprehend the pain and anguish suffered by the families and friends of these missing persons.”
Father Aquinas Duffy, who established Missing Irish People’s website (www.missing.ws) in April 2000 said there had been an alarming increase in the number of missing people.
The Dublin diocesan priest said he operated the website, which contains photos of missing persons, without any funding but there was only so much he could do on his own.
Father Duffy knows too well what the families of missing people go through. His cousin, Aengus Shanahan, went missing in Limerick in February 2000.
“For people like him the national helpline was like a dream come true,” he said.
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