HSE silence on false allegations of child abuse questioned

On Jun 12 you published a letter from me regarding the manner in which the HSE deals with false allegations of child abuse.

In my letter I asked if it is the policy of the HSE to simply put away their files and take no further action when they come across cases of obvious or apparent false allegations.

Such false allegations would arise mostly in cases of marriage or relationship breakdown.

Given the gravity of the issue that I raised, and the fact that it was brought to the attention of thousands of your readers, I expected some form of response from the HSE.

From their silence I think we can draw the obvious conclusion — that they do treat false allegations with impunity and put away these files rather than referring these horrific offences for appropriate action.

This policy inevitably leads to an increase in false allegations with consequences for the HSE’s own resources and devastating consequences for the innocent children and the innocent targets of these allegations.

But perhaps the HSE feels safe in hiding its head in the sand.

In my letter I also asked if anybody in the media, politics, etc. would have the courage and integrity to investigate the manner in which the HSE deals with false allegations.

Child law expert, Geoffrey Shannon, raised this issue at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, however, none of its members questioned the HSE delegation on this matter or referred to it in subsequent discussions (source www.oireachtas.ie).

It seems that the timidity of the media and the political establishment, which allowed such horrific abuses to continue in the Catholic Church in the past, still prevails.

Matt Harper

Clones Road

Monaghan