Inaction on child safety cannot be repeated

The latest child law rapporteur report comes at a time when children’s issues are finally forcing their way up the Government’s agenda, writes Noel Baker

The horrors of the Roscommon abuse case and some of the tragic deaths of children known to care services in the recent Shannon Gibbons report are all too obvious. But buried within is another cause for dismay: Inaction.

In the Roscommon case, neighbours and others voiced concerns at what might be happening within the confines of the family home. In the National Review Panel report on the deaths of children in care, inaction was accompanied by intervention which came too late to turn things around.