Ombudsman for Children ‘should have police role’
Last year, Ms Logan conducted a special inquiry into the removal by gardaí of two Roma children from their families.
Speaking at the launch of her final annual report yesterday, Ms Logan said her inquiry showed child protection was not recognised or valued enough within the gardaí.
She was concerned that the new policing authority would only focus on “hard-hitting” criminal activity and forget the really important issue of child protection and community policing.
“I believe that the authority of the next Ombudsman for Children should be extended to include a role on the new independent policing authority.
“We place great value on the Child and Family Agency and their contribution to child protection. Why should that not be the same for gardaí?”
The Government has promised that the authority would be established at the end of the year.
The ombudsman also referred to section 12 of the 1991 Child Care Act — the emergency power that allows gardaí to remove a child from a family.
“Short of arrest, it is a really significant power held by individual guards that is applied subjectively and it needs to be independently audited and reviewed.”
Ms Logan said the gardaí were the only state officers who could exercise this power that was used over 700 times a year. However, her office had looked at Garda commissioner reports over a seven-year period and found no reference to the exercise of that power.
The ombudsman’s annual report shows that last year, the office dealt with 1,677 complaints — an increase of 16% since 2012.
Once again, the vast majority of complainants were parents contacting the ombudsman’s office on behalf of their children.
Education (43%) and family support, care and protection (26%) were the two main categories of complaint.
Some of the education complaints were about the way schools handled allegations of inappropriate professional conduct; how peer bullying was handled; expulsion, suspension and enrolment. There were also complaints about Department of Education policies, schemes and curriculum, and the allocation of special needs resources.
Family support care and protection complaints covered child protection, issues relating to children in care, family support services and community care services.
Where appropriate, the ombudsman intervened at an early stage to show public bodies the steps that could be taken to achieve the best outcome for the child involved, and, more generally, for all children in contact with it.
Despite a lack of clarity regarding its jurisdiction in the area relating to asylum and immigration matters, the office resolved a number of complaints in the interests of the children involved.
Ms Logan has been appointed chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
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