Amid Claims of Lack of Social Workers to Tackle Surge in Cases of Abuse Minister for Children to Face Oireachtas Committee
15th Sept 2010
The Minister with responsibility for Children, Barry Andrews TD will attend a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children tomorrow, 16th at 3pm in Committee Room 2 of Leinster House.
The Committee originally invited Minister Andrews to the meeting following criticism made of the childcare services in Ireland by Barnardos and the ISPCC at a meeting of the Committee in July. At that meeting, the agencies questioned whether the HSE was fit for purpose when it came to managing childcare services.
They also raised serious concerns regarding the lack of an out of hours social work service, the procedures for vetting childcare workers and the timing of the children’s referendum.
Committee Chairman, Se n O’Fearghail TD said;
“At our meeting with the ISPCC and Barnardos we heard some strong criticism of how childcare services are run. Both agencies expressed their disappointment and frustration at the level of services provided. Based on this meeting, we decided to invite the relevant Minister to respond.
We have also heard claims today from the One in Four group that the HSE has told them that it has not been able to investigate claims of abuse due to lack of social workers staff. This is a worrying development, so we would like to ask the Minister to answer these claims and address the points made by the ISPCC and Barnardos.
This Committee can be viewed on-line at: http://www.oireachtas.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/documents/livewebcast/Web-Live.htm&CatID=83&m=o
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