End playacting - ‘Grace’ reports reach an impasse

Suggestions that the Cabinet is “furious” on one issue or another must always be considered with a sensible degree of detachment. After all, there is hardly an entity in the country better placed to confront and resolve sticky issues.

That seems a reasonable description of the impasse around the delay in publishing a report into the horrific ‘Grace’ foster care abuse scandal. The HSE has, apparently, refused to publish earlier reports on the scandal, despite attorney general Marie Whelan’s assertion that there is no valid reason not to publish the 2012 Conal Devine Report and the 2015 Resilience Ireland report. This case involves allegations of extreme sexual and physical abuse against disabled children and adults in a foster home between 1992 and 2013.

This society has a shameful record on transparency on these matters. This peaked when some religious congregations were obstructive, but that stonewalling cannot be tolerated from an arm of the State: The HSE. It is time to end the playacting and for Government to issue an order. This is, after all, what they were elected to do. Dog, tail, wagging, etc.