Child protection - Major step in the right direction

Among vulnerable sections of Irish society, many people can justly claim to be victimised by the failure of politicians to legislate.

Nowhere is this more obvious than the plight of children whose lack of protection is a dark monument to the callous disregard of successive governments.

In its long shadow, generations of children have been neglected, abused, and deprived while the powers-that-be failed to give them either the protection of the Constitution or the law. As a result, both the State and the Church were blind to what was going on.