Ryan report legacy - We want action, not sound bytes

Were it not for their dedication and commitment to children, matched only by the anger and frustration of the voluntary organisations at the coalface of child protection in Ireland, the Ryan report might well be consigned to a convenient shelf where it would quietly gather dust.

That’s the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the failure of this ineffectual Government to implement promises made with fanfares of publicity, following a storm of public outrage at the Ryan expose of a cover-up by both the Catholic Church and Government of sexual and physical abuse involving priests and nuns against thousands of children in the care of state institutions. It would be hard to imagine greater evidence of a Government sitting on its hands, instead of getting on with the job of fast-tracking almost 100 actions within a set timescale under the Ryan Report Implementation Plan.

Exactly one year after the report, the penetrating scrutiny of Government inaction by eight organisations involved in combating child abuse, reveals the depressing reality of vacuous political promises, a scenario voluntary organisations have grown accustomed to from an administration that promises much but delivers little.

We learn of Government failure to fulfil promises of extra social workers, of the non-delivery of promised finance to those working on ground zero, of the failure to implement policies which have been put in place, of unforgivable gaps in providing out-of-work social service to deal with personal crises that all too often end in tragedy, not to mention the deaths of so many children in care, or the frustrating lack of a fixed date for the promised referendum on the rights of children.

As a result of neither providing resources on the ground, nor of putting policies into action, the existing services are grossly overburdened and forced to manage in an atmosphere of crisis day-in day-out. Nor can this tide of criticism be glibly dismissed since they include the very organisations that have to pick up the pieces – serious bodies like Barnardos, the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the Children’s Rights Alliance, ISPCC, One in Four, CARI and the Irish Association of Young people.

There is widespread agreement on the urgent need for action but little confidence that this Government has the stomach or the political will to deliver on its promises. Against this bleak backdrop, it will be revealing to see how many of the 200 extra social workers promised by Minister of State Barry Andrews by the end of this year, including 50 before July, will be appointed. With almost five months gone by and not one appointment yet made, the cynicism of workers on the ground is understandable.

People are fed up with empty pledges that invariably turn out not to be worth the paper they are written on. Public relations sound bytes are no substitute for meaningful political action that is the right of children in care.