So what can we learn from this tragedy?

Lessons must be learned if the Dunne family tragedy is not to be repeated, writes Conor Ryan

So what can we learn from this tragedy?

THOSE we trust failed Leán and Shania Dunne this week and as a result they died tragically.

Those who should have done their jobs also failed their parents Adrian and Ciara Dunne and they died tragically.

But perhaps the biggest failure is the reluctance by the State agencies involved to accept any responsibility for their actions, or more accurately their inaction.

After this week’s blame-game, following the murder /suicides that rocked the quiet village on Monageer, a few things are clear:

there is no national children-at-risk register

there is no universal interpretation of what is an at-risk child

there is no obligation for social services to collect information on children in distress

there is no legal requirement on Gardaí, social services, education providers and health workers to abide by the Children First Guidelines of 1999

Since the introduction of the guidelines in 1999, children’s welfare groups have demanded they become legally binding. Instead there is an ad hoc system where individual organisations and workers decide their own criteria for when it is right to intervene.

The lack of any strict guidelines is one of the principal reasons why gardaí were forced to kick down the door of the Dunne house on Monday afternoon. But while the grim discovery of the four bodies shocked everyone, the warning signs were there.

On Friday, the Gardaí were told the family had made detailed funeral arrangements by the concerned undertaker. They made contact with a priest who was a friend of the family.

On Saturday, they spoke again to the undertaker and following a lengthy interview, a Garda Superintendent contacted the local childcare manager to enquire about the family. They were told the Dunnes were not on an at-risk register.

Health officials told Gardaí if they had major concerns to move the children under Section 12 of the Childcare Act or talk to a GP.

A phone call was made to social workers and an agreement was made for health officials and the police to discuss the case on Monday morning.

A garda car was also sent to the housing estate on Saturday evening, but gardaí did not call to the house.

Despite the ringing alarm bells, the HSE made no attempt to contact the family or call to the house on Saturday or Sunday.

Because of the inaction of the State agencies and the failure of the system, by the time the gardaí and the HSE called to the house on Monday, it was too late.

On RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday, garda press officer Superintendent Kevin Donohoe defended the response of the gardaí. He said, after being told of the advance funeral arrangements, a patrol car circled the Moine Rua estate on Saturday.

They did not call to the door of the Dunne household. Supt Donohoe explained in some circumstances uniformed Gardaí calling to houses can inflame matters.

The ISPCC said the decision not to call to the house highlighted a lack of faith among gardaí in their ability to handle sensitive situations. This self-doubt is reflected in the feelings of victims themselves.

On Wednesday morning the Central Statistics Office released quarterly statistics unwittingly uncovering the domino effect this philosophy has.

Compared to 2006, the number of sexual offences dropped by 44.5%. Police, politicians, statisticians and support workers agreed this is because victims do not think their cases will be handled properly and thus don’t bother reporting them.

The study said a Europe-wide equivalent showed Ireland had the highest rates of domestic violence and sexual crimes.

During Tuesday’s discussion, Supt Donohoe said the Gardaí use their Section 12 powers to take a child to safety on average once a week.

Its own quarterly figures show the force deals with six criminal cases of child abuse every week. Even when officers use Section 12 there are only guidelines to inform them on what happens next.

Reviewing the Children First Guidelines, Dr Helen Buckley from Trinity College said until proper information on vulnerable children is collected and stored, dangerous cases will go unnoticed.

In Britain it is a legal requirement for every relevant body to keep these records.

The years of neglect eight-year-old Victoria Climbie suffered before her death in 2000 is among the cases driving British policy. The inquiry into her death should have taught Ireland a lesson.

On Thursday’s Morning Ireland programme, Minister for Health Mary Harney said even if such systems were available, there may have been nothing which could have prevented the Monageer deaths.

However, her comments show a lack of faith in health professionals.

It is an argument resting on the belief that if all social services had interacted with the family nobody would be alarmed when detailed funeral arrangements were made on Friday.

It is to say no person within the health service would share the concerns of Father Richmond Redmond before he visited the house for two hours on Friday night.

It is to say mental health professionals would have been unable to detect suicidal tendencies in either parent on the weekend the family died.

The same arguments emerged in the case of Sharon Grace two years ago when she went to hospital to be denied psychiatric help before drowning herself and her two children in Wexford.

When the Health Service Executive said the five and three year-old victims of last weekend’s tragedy were not on its at-risk register, it was assumed there was a central database.

The Irish Association of Social Workers said there is no central register but the term refers to the files kept by local childcare workers.

The extent of information kept varies across the country.

Child welfare groups want every piece of information when families interact with agencies to be kept in an accessible location available to any service in an emergency.

This would happen if the Children First Guidelines were fully implemented.

It would include details from cases of domestic violence, mental health in parents, neglect, school concerns, incidents with police or health reports.

This is used to compile a risk assessment which would sound the alarm in moments of extreme behaviour, such as occurred when the Dunnes arrived into Cooney’s funeral home to pick out coffins.

In June the Office of the Minister for Children will release the review of the Children First Guidelines. It will be at the same time as the report of the National Working Group on Out of Hours Social Service will publish its findings.

Coupled with the inquiry into the Monageer tragedy lessons must be learned if the tragedy which claimed the lives of Leán and Shania Dunne and their parents is not to be repeated.