Irish Examiner view: Failure to act will lead to more failures

The release of the Farrelly Commission report has led to plenty of reaction, and criticism of the commission

Minister for children Norma Foley said she had asked inquiry chairwoman Marjorie Farrelly, as a mark of respect, to inform the families involved in the investigation that the report was imminent.

The release of the Farrelly Commission report, known widely as the Grace report, has led to plenty of reaction. This is hardly a shock given the report runs to some 2,000 pages, after eight years of investigations costing an estimated €20m.

What is surprising is the extent of the criticism directed at the report and the commission. Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, a long-time campaigner on this matter, said the State was using the report to walk away from its responsibilities, while Ireland’s special rapporteur on child protection described it as “quite impenetrable”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Grace had been “failed by the State for the totality of her life experience”, stressing the need to “fundamentally reflect on how we’re doing these inquiries, the effectiveness of them, and whether there’s a better way of getting to the truth”.

Is there? Earlier this week, Fergus Finlay’s column offered a damning indictment of the various avenues of redress open to citizens of this country, itemising the failings of each one — unless one happens to be a member of the legal profession, in which case there is much to recommend some of those avenues.

The difference between the critics of this report and the Taoiseach, of course, is that the latter is in a position to address this problem, which should be done as a matter of urgency. In doing so, he might consider overhauling the terms of reference of those chairing such inquiries, based on comments from children’s minister Norma Foley.

Ms Foley said she had asked inquiry chairwoman Marjorie Farrelly, as a mark of respect, to inform the families involved in the investigation that the report was imminent. Ms Farrelly replied that it would be very difficult to do so and suggested releasing a press statement instead.

The commission’s conclusions, and the subsequent shutting down of its work and lack of action to investigate and support further victims, mean this has been a deeply unsatisfying conclusion to an horrific episode in this State’s history. The above exchange between minister and chairwoman only reinforces the idea that such inquiries must be replaced by a better mechanism to serve the public good.

Lingering sense of uncertainty

After a delay of several months, it now appears that free hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women may now be on the horizon.

Announced last October and scheduled to begin in January, this scheme has been notably slow to get going. Even in this week’s announcement by health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the inevitable caveats and complications were all too visible.

The new deal announced by the minister funds related products and fees in a concession to the pharmacy sector — prescription charges for medical card HRT patients no longer apply for products on a set list or replacements if they are out of stock, while she stated that she had “written to all community pharmacies today [Tuesday] asking that they support and facilitate the women in their communities to access State-funded HRT products and medicines”.

It was no surprise to find that the pharmacy sector immediately aired some objections. Pharmacists will be paid a €5 dispensing fee per HRT product given to eligible patients, but Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) president Tom Murray articulated his organisation’s issues with the scheme.

Mr Murray said “the proposed €5 professional service fee, a rate now in its third decade, is simply not viable”, adding that their suggestion was for “the IPU HRT community drug scheme, supported by a professional service fee of €6.50 per medicine”. It is surely possible to bridge that gap of €1.50 between the minister’s figure and the IPU’s figure, but it seems strange that the Government is not displaying more urgency in this matter.

This is a scheme with the potential to make a real difference in women’s lives across the board, but the lengthy delay in implementation has already undercut its impact considerably. The fact that there is no great certainty on implementation even now, for a date six months later than that envisaged by the original plan, is even more disappointing.

Ant and trek

It isn’t often that a couple of stories coincide perfectly to illustrate the dual nature of our relationship with nature, but yesterday was one of those occasions.

Readers may have enjoyed reports of Den stora älgvandringen — known in English as either The Great Moose Migration or The Great Elk Trek — the annual migration of moose in Sweden across the River Angerman.

This event is livestreamed for three weeks and audiences have leaped from 1m when broadcasting began in 2019 to 9m last year. Little enough happens — a couple of deer cross a stream — but millions of Swedes are soothed by the experience, tuning in for hours at a time.

Compare this with the bizarre story emerging from Kenya, where two Belgian teenagers were charged with trying to smuggle 5,000 ants out of the country to supply illegal markets in Europe.

Kenya’s state wildlife service said the case shows a change in smuggling trends “from iconic large mammals to lesser-known yet ecologically critical species”, while the two teens claimed they did not know it was illegal to traffic the insects.

The first story shows a modern way to appreciate the natural order, while the second uncovers the kind of ruthless exploitation that would be familiar to poachers a century ago.

It would be encouraging if more of us shared the Swedes’ harmless enjoyment of their native species.

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