HSE indicted - Whistleblowers ignored

TODAY we report that the HSE has, after seven years, accepted its liability in horror cases involving the extreme sexual and physical abuse of disabled children in a foster home in the South-East.

It may an overstatement, but only just, to suggest that the neglect shown, and the utterly ineffective response, by the HSE to 2009 allegations of the most dreadful abuse of the most vulnerable people makes that organisation complicit in the most heinous abuse. Of course that charge will be vigorously rejected — resources, staff shortages etc — but how else can their failure be regarded?

Even in a society where the victims of sexual assault often find it hard to get the support they must get this is an appalling case — so appalling that the suitability of those who dismissed the orignial allegations for their health service positions comes into question.

The HSE is not the only organisation to fail to respond to almost unbelieveable allegations and this points to a cultural ambiguity that in today’s world is utterly unaceptable.