Progress as sure-footed as Titanic’s

It was only in mid-May that the Referendum Commission severely criticised the €1m information campaign conducted by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in advance of the referendum to amend the Constitution, on the grounds that it was costly and confusing and that the minister did allow sufficient time for the Commission to prepare an adequate information campaign.

The Prime Time exposé of the pervasive low standards and flagrant disregard of regulations in the childcare sector illustrated how the authority of the State has once again been flagrantly challenged with impunity.

The absence of any relevant bureaucrats from the subsequent panel discussions has done little to quell public alarm at what appears to be rudderless leadership, ambiguous oversight and an absence of relevant, coordinated high-level data and analysis upon which to make timely interventions and critical decisions.

Minister Fitzgerald has explained that creche inspection reports undertaken in future will become available to parents. Her department has been in existence for over two years but its progress has been as sure-footed as the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

The iceberg has been spotted and it is very close. But it is not clear to the worried public what navigational data and critical information has been available to the captain to reach that point.

The minister has made many remarks about what the anonymous ‘we’ are going to do to reassure the shattered confidence of society with respect to the care, welfare and well-being of small children.

It would be preferable had she spoken in the first person by declaring what ‘I’ am doing; how ‘I’ intend to direct this mandate; what ‘I’ intend to achieve and who ‘I’ intend to remove from pivotal roles of responsibility, on grounds of being intolerably ineffective or grossly incompetent.

The electorate, in an abysmally low turnout, decided to amend the Constitution to enhance the prospects of enhanced child welfare. Has Minister Fitzgerald amended the mission statement of the Health Service Executive to reflect this, or is that task just another agenda item on her to-do list?

The performance of this Government and that of the last government has shown that strong governance and competent leadership is not derived from the herd instinct of playing ‘catch-up’ and being reduced to histrionic responses following an adverse media exposé.

Myles Duffy

Glenageary

Co Dublin