Child sexual abuse - HSE accused of failure

GIVEN Ireland’s atrocious record of child sexual abuse, it is appalling to learn there are no dedicated specialist services to examine, interview and support children who have been thus abused or assaulted.

Not for the first time, the HSE stands accused of failing to fund a dedicated service with the result that two doctors assigned to this task have withdrawn their expertise.

With the state promising on one hand to seriously address the problem of child sexual abuse, while on the other denying adequate funding, this is a classic case of hypocrisy.

People are tired of hearing the same old excuse that systems failure is to blame.

That limp pretext guarantees anonymity at management level in an organisation where accountability and transparency seem to count for little.

The inescapable conclusion is that faceless managers in the Byzantine layers of the HSE have failed to provide the traumatised victims of child sexual abuse with ready access to emergency services including a paediatrician and forensic examiner. If so, they should be named and shamed.

If openness and answerability were the norm, the much promised multi-disciplinary service for the protection of child victims of the heinous crime of sexual abuse, would be in place long before now.

To quote a consultant, it is astounding that while a 23-year-old woman raped on a Friday night can be examined within two hours, when a three-year-old is raped at a weekend no multi-disciplinary service will respond until Monday — if even then. That is indeed a shocking indictment of the HSE.