HSE and false child abuse allegations

I fully agree with child law expert Geoffrey Shannon who told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that new child protection laws need to include sanctions for people who knowingly make false reports of child abuse against individuals (Irish Examiner, Jun 8).

However, there is little point in having such provisions on the statute book if they continue to be ignored by statutory bodies.

Under the Protection for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act, 1998, a false report of child abuse is an offence punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years and/or a fine of up to approx €20,000 (both ridiculously lenient). Since this legislation was enacted the HSE has dealt with thousands of allegations of child abuse. Many of these would have arisen in circumstances of marriage or relationship breakdown and some would have involved child custody disputes. At one end of the spectrum, it would be fairly obvious that there was substance to the allegations in some cases. In such cases, the HSE would refer the cases to the appropriate authorities (gardaí, DPP). At the other end of the spectrum, it would be equally obvious that there was no substance to the allegations and many were made to gain advantage in family law disputes.

The people who make these false allegations are guilty of a crime that is as heinous as child abuse itself and is deemed to be an offence under the Act mentioned above. To my knowledge, nobody has been convicted of this offence since the legislation was enacted. Is it the policy of the HSE to simply drop such cases and put the file away?

Given that so many people in the media, politics, etc, are tripping over each other in their rush to uncover the truth about how child abuse was dealt with in the Catholic Church, would any of them have the courage and the integrity to investigate the manner in which the HSE deals with false allegations? Any denial by the HSE that it comes across such cases would be as absurd as claiming that no bishop or priest has ever been made aware of child abuse in the Catholic Church.

Matt Harper

Clones Road

Monaghan