Catastrophic failure and no accountability

THE case of Grace, a girl who grew to adulthood in an abusive environment in a foster home, reached a resolution of sorts this week when the High Court awarded her €6.3m in damages.

In his ruling, Judge Peter Kelly called her ordeal ‘not just shocking but a scandal’.

Care chiefs were told she was being mistreated as early as 1996, yet she was inexplicably left in the home for another 13 years. The five people who dealt, at least in part, with her case all are on full HSE pensions and two still work with the child protection agency Tusla – one in a senior role.

At many points over the years, Grace could have been moved to a safer environment but she was not.

Only for a whistleblower, she might not have been freed at all from what was almost captivity.

So, once again, we ask: what do you have to do in Ireland to be held accountable? If errors of judgment this egregious have not been punished but rather rewarded with continuing employment, is the State on the side of the child or on the side of healthcare workers?

Perhaps the woman still in a senior role made a decision in this case that she now deeply regrets and has an otherwise exemplary record.

Even so, she should have been suspended when the inquiry began and then reinstated if exonerated.

There are more than 40 cases before Tusla involving abuse in care – a staggering failure on the part of the State to protect the vulnerable.

A bigger failure would be if, at the end of the process, those found to have been in breach of their duty of care got nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

It is time we acted like any mature nation and fired those guilty of neglect.