Child protection scandal deadlock: Red-tape delays unacceptable

WHEN the “Grace” childcare scandal broke, one provoked by allegations of the most serious abuse in a foster care setting, it was as if a stone had been turned over and the darkest episodes in our history had returned to haunt and mock us. 

Those tragedies of inadequate care, maladministration, and abuse were supposed to be part of our history, not something that roared, unfinished, at us from the pending tray.

That scandal is exacerbated by the revelation that child protection staff named in the foster home sex abuse scandal have not been risk assessed or even temporarily transferred because red tape is, according to the HSE, preventing them from “inappropriately” identifying them.