Children at risk due to shortage of staff

Chronic under-staffing of psychology services in Co Roscommon left 180 children waiting one to two years to be seen and prevented psychologists from assessing parents ability to care for their children.

An audit of the management of neglect cases in three parts of the country, including Co Roscommon, found an overburdened psychology service was unable to provide a number of critical services from a child protection perspective including investigation of abuse allegations and interventions with children who have been abused.

The staffing situation in Roscommon — the setting for one of the country’s most horrific child abuse cases where a mother was jailed for incest for the first time in Irish legal history — was far worse than in Dublin South East or Waterford.