Alcohol misuse can’t be ignored

The role of alcohol in the abuse of children must urgently be addressed, writes Fiona Ryan

LESS than 48 hours after a report detailing how the State failed once again to look after children in its care might seem too soon to contemplate what we need to do to ensure this never happens again. Children are dead, families are devastated.

Eventually we will have to move from “how could this have happened again?” to “how can we make sure this doesn’t happen again?” This is not an attempt to dilute the bitter backwash of this report. To do that would be to dishonour the memory of these children and the complexity of their lives and their deaths.