Government may appoint officer for child protection

The Government is to consider appointing a nationally recognised, go-to figure that children around the country could contact in confidence with complaints of abuse.

The suggestion was made by the abuse survivor Louise O’Keeffe in her first meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny since she won a landmark case earlier this year following a 15-year legal battle against the State.

The Taoiseach issued a public apology to her in January after the European Court of Human Rights ruled the State was negligent in failing to protect her from abuse by her national school principal in the 1970s.