Barnardos: HSE unable to handle child welfare

THE state’s child welfare system is so fundamentally flawed that serious consideration must be given to whether the HSE should be left in charge of child protection services, it has been claimed.

The head of children’s charity Barnardos, Fergus Finlay, said yesterday the HSE is incapable of prioritising child welfare because of the way it was set up.

Barnardos was one of a coalition of eight child protection organisations to criticise the progress made in implementing recommendations of the Ryan report, a year after it was published.