Greg Daly
Reluctance to fund necessary services is endangering Ireland’s vulnerable children, a leading child protection expert has said.
Commenting on the number of children known to the social care system without being properly investigated, Shane Dunphy told The Irish Catholic that “there are almost 30,000 open cases which have been referred and accepted as in need of intervention, but haven’t been properly investigated yet and are sitting waiting for attention. Almost 5,937 haven’t even been allocated a social worker. Of these 1,000 are classed as high priority.”
Describing this as “absolutely ridiculous”, he said the issue will be ignored until something tragic happens, at which point there will be a brief outcry before the problem is forgotten again.
“These things happen because it costs too much to do anything about it,” he said.