Analysis: Guidelines come far too late for far too many victims

IT is grimly ironic that in the same week as the publication of revised child protection guidelines, we are once again listening to horrific stories of the abuse of children.

Not only was there more evidence this week of the systemic cover-up of abuse of children by priests — people in whom children should have supreme trust — but we have also heard harrowing accounts of the depraved treatment of eight children by their own mother.

A court in Galway heard the details of what these young people suffered for the entirety of their childhoods and how, although the HSE was involved with the family from 2000, the children were not taken into care until 2009.