Poor child services data adds insult to injury
New figures provided to the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show, on average, 31 injuries are sustained by children and young people in residential care every month.
The last time the Irish Examiner received comparable figures — even though the HSE maintain the data is not comparable — was in early 2011, when a huge wad of documentation was delivered to our Dublin office from Dublin Mid Leinster. It contained redacted files that outlined the chaotic and worrying nature of many of the injuries. The information covered the years 2005 to 2007 and highlighted incidents in which teenage girls were allegedly raped having absconded from care, and children as young as nine and 10 who were self-harming.
