A fast-track court case system for children who are the victims of physical and sexual abuse has been proposed by the Minister of State for Children, Ms Mary Hanafin.
She was speaking following the publication of a survey of 319 child abuse cases in the Mid-Western Health Board area and recommends an overhaul of the system of dealing with child abuse.
At a function to launch the report in Limerick, Ms Hanafin said she would now put proposals before the Minister for Justice. She wanted the Department of Justice to work with the Courts Service to see if a children's division for certain courts could be established so there would be a separate list when children are victims.
"Child sex abuse cases are delayed so long the children and families are suffering," she said.
The three-year study, by Prof Harry Ferguson of the Department of Social policy and Social Work, UCD, and Ms Maire O'Reilly, a UCC-based social researcher, refers to a "striking pattern" of abuse cases occurring among disadvantaged, lone-parent families. The most prevalent form of abuse was neglect, occurring in 44 per cent of substantiated cases, most often because of poor parenting skills or being left "home alone".
The 291-page report, "Keeping Children Safe - Child Abuse, Child Protection and the Promotion of Welfare", points to the "poor outcomes in terms of criminal prosecutions and the promotion of child safety and the victims' welfare".
The report evaluated the childcare and protection system operated by the three community care teams of the MidWestern Health Board. It found that only six successful convictions occurred despite more than half of the 319 referrals being notified to the Garda.
In child sexual abuse cases - accounting for 36 of the 319 referrals - the report points to the structural problems in pursuing prosecutions, including "a socio-legal system which does not work in the best interests of children".
Referring to the over-legalistic approach of the present system, specialist social workers pointed to "contamination of evidence" fears which prevented them offering comfort to suspected abused children. One stated: "If a child is crying . . . we could be strung up, if, for instance, we offered them comfort."
The report also found evidence of "unsafe practice" where children were not seen or adequately engaged with.
Examining investigated cases, it was found that 22 per cent of the children were not seen or interviewed. "The system does need to become more childcentred," Prof Ferguson said. He added that many cases were being re-reported, almost a third of the total within a year, and were absorbing huge resources.
"One of the key recommendations is we need to develop a new model of practice that can target intervention at these kind of families, where professionals can be highly skilled to work with the multi-problem nature of these cases." There had to be the skills to work with hostility and lack of knowledge and lack of willingness to resolve these problems.
One positive comment on the findings came from the health board's assistant chief executive, Mr Ger Crowley. He pointed to the finding that 92 per cent of referrals were directly investigated by them, demonstrating a high level of accountability and safe practice for the health board.
This was "a finding which flew in the face of media commentary about a crisis in child protection", he argued.
The report also noted "the ambiguous position of domestic violence as a child protection and welfare issue" and the pressure on social workers to do child protection work.
Domestic violence was a feature in 26 per cent of cases and was predominantly male-on-female violence, not involving the children directly. Mr Crowley said said that adult to adult violence was a big force of adversity in many children's lives.
"It is particularly there in the cases which keep coming back into the system," Mr Crowley said. They would have to find a new working model for dealing with a small number of families.