Calls to investigate services for prejudice

State services should be evaluated for prejudice-based practices following the handling of the two Roma child cases last week, a social care expert has urged.

John Byrne, a lecturer in social care practice at Waterford Institute of Technology, said there should be “a root and branch evaluation” of the extent of prejudice-based practice in the State services.

Mr Byrne, a social care worker and psychotherapist who has 20 years of experience working in child protection, said he believed judgement calls were sometimes made by a minority of gardaí and social workers based on their own prejudices.