Child protection - Legalising guidelines

Niall McElwee taught child protection courses at the Athlone Institute of Technology for more than two years after his conviction for the indecent assault of two young women in the Netherlands.

This raises serious questions about the way the guidelines for the protection of children have been ignored.

Those guidelines are provided in a comprehensive document, Children First. The Ferns report into clerical paedophile abuse had already stressed the need to put those guidelines on a statutory basis, and the report into the McElwee case reaffirms the point.

In a sense, guidelines are only recommendations and officials are therefore free to ignore them, whereas if they were given a statutory basis, they would have the force of law.

Guidelines should be followed, but this will only happen if those who ignore them are held responsible. If they do not have the dedication to implement the guidelines, they should not be in positions of responsibility in the first place.

There is, however, an urgent need to protect children. For too long people refused to face up to this kind of abuse, so the guidelines on child protection should be put on a statutory basis without further delay.