Social workers question workload

SOCIAL workers are to meet the Minister for Children later this month to address how new laws on the reporting of alleged child abuse will be covered in the face of increased workload.

One part of the plans revealed by Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald on Wednesday is that it would be a crime not to report any knowledge of the alleged abuse of children to the authorities.

Other proposals include increased vetting provision and the placing of the Children First guidelines on a statutory footing.

The proposals have received a broad welcome, but the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) said there could be a resource issue if and when more people began reporting incidents of alleged abuse.

Ineke Durville of the IASW said the issue would be raised in a meeting with Ms Fitzgerald on July 25.

“It is very hard to get a handle on that because we have not seen the actual legislation and how strong that is going to be,” she said.

Ms Durville said there was also concern that resources would be taken away from the area of early intervention and prevention of abuse, and she said frontline social workers needed to be consulted on any possible ramifications of the new bill, the Heads of which should be published before the end of the month.

The new proposals regarding the reporting of incidents will also impact on doctors, solicitors and priests who hear confession.

The Irish Medical Council said doctors would readily comply with any new reporting requirements specified by law.

As for the possible conflict within the Catholic Church over the law — which the Government has said will apply without exemption, apart from a special request by a victim for non-disclosure — Bishop Gerard Clifford, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Armagh, said: “The bond of secrecy that is attached to confession has to be respected.”

He told RTÉ Radio that while he welcomed measures to improve child protection, and acknowledged that these issues could not be dealt with by the Church alone, priests would recommend to victims that they go to the authorities.

“I would like to see the legislation itself before I make a final comment,” he added.

Ken Murphy, director general of the Law Society, said those in the legal profession would also wait for the legislation to be published.