From my very first day as Minister I have said we need data.
- Data that will paint a picture of the scale of the problems of child abuse and child neglect in Ireland;
- Data that will highlight the demands that exist on child protection services and services for victims; and
- Data that will allow us to track improvements (or maybe deteriorations) as we try to develop and reform services.
I wish to whole-heartedly commend the RCNI; and its members, including the Rape Crisis Centres and CARI, for drawing open the curtains on the data you have collated
I welcome your report. Going forward we need more reports like this
This report tells us that in 2012, Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs) and Children At Risk in Ireland (CARI) provided services for 192 minors ranging in age from 4 to 17 years old.
It tells us about the age of child survivors accessing services. 67% were 16 or 17 years old, 26% were 14 or 15 years old, 4% were 11-13 years old, 4% were under 10 years old in 2012.
It tells us that rape was the most commonly experienced type of sexual violence, with 60% of incidents involving an assault of this type.
It tells us that 65% of incidents of abuse of child survivors were perpetrated by a single individual on a single occasion.
And it tells us, that 37% of the perpetrators of sexual abuse against child survivors were under themselves 18 years old.
While we have been horrified over historic abuse, this report forces recognition of current abuse and highlights yet again that the horror of abuse remains part of the tragic experience of too many Irish children.
Increase in Referrals
Since 2006 alone we have seen the number of referrals of child protection and welfare reports almost double from 21,000 in 2006 to 40,000 in 2012. The increase in child protection and welfare reports in 2012 alone was almost 10,000 reports above the 2011 level. This is in part due to the increase awareness of child protection and the need to report, in particular on foot of the relaunch of Children First two years ago.
It is worth pointing out that in line with the overall trend there has also been an increase in child sexual abuse claims from 2,306 in 2007 to nearly 4,000 in 2012.
One thing is clear.
Child abuse hasn’t gone away. It doesn’t go away.
Athlone
What happened to two little girls in Athlone stopped us all in our tracks.
Lured away from a party and sexually abused.
In the middle of the day.
The terror.
The suffering.
The courage of the two of them, escaping afterward.
And their outraged, loving families.
That’s one of the important realities reading this report hammers home: that, for starters, not only do many sexually-abused children not have that resource of a believing, a furious, a caring family, but in many cases, the sexual violence is perpetrated by people known to them. In some cases, perpetrated by family.
And much of the abuse that starts when a child is four or five isn’t a once-off, horrific though that would be. No – it can recur over a number of years before it is detected. In the aftermath, not only must the child try to heal, but the child must also come to terms with having been abused by someone they should have been able to trust. Someone they loved. Someone with whom they should have been safe.
Childhood is a precious time in life. A time for laughter and love, exploration and enjoyment. Trust and growth.
When a child is abused, all of that is tainted, and memories are laid down that last a lifetime, leaching corrosive mistrust into relationships ten, twenty or even thirty years after the original abuse.
It is imperative that we learn as much as we can about the circumstances around this dreadful crime, to find the most effective ways to help victims to heal as much as possible and find ways to prevent it from happening at all. The publication of reports such as this one from the RCNI, developed from the collection of robust data can help the development of policy and practice into the future.
Change
My Department is leading the charge when it comes to reforms in Children and Family policy and services.
That’s my Department’s job.
As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, I am committed to improving services for children and in particular, protecting those who are vulnerable to abuse.
That’s my job.
But it’s a lot more than just my job. The protection of children could never be just a job. Not when we’re coming from such a ghastly history. Not when we – until very recently – had no reliable data about our child protection picture. Against that murky picture, a job becomes a mission.
In July this year the Government approved the revised heads of the Children First Bill and drafting of this legislation is now proceeding so we can finally put Children First on a statutory footing.
My Department is also progressing legislation which provides for the establishment of the new Child and Family Agency; and at the heart of the new Agency will be new working models for the intake, prioritisation and referral of cases which will ensure child abuse cases will receive an urgent social work response.
Sexual Abuse Services
That’s just one of a huge number of structural changes we’re putting in place.
Structural changes based on one report after another:
- First, the Ferns Inquiry Report in 2005;
- Then the Review of Sexual Abuse Services for Children and Young People, issued in June 2011.
- Next will come the Ferns 4 steering committee report, due before the end of the year.
Each report brings a new insight, new data. (Or, in the case of this particular report, a drilling down into existing data so that we “get it” in a quite new way.)
Cumulatively, the reports create comprehensive understanding – comprehensive understanding of the need for a national service model that integrates and coordinates the six key components of sexual abuse services and delivers them regionally. Those six components being:
- Medical/forensic examination
- Child protection
- Garda Investigation
- Assessment
- Therapy
- Court process.
In progressing the development of this much-needed national approach the first priority must be better coordination of services to ensure that the children who need them get the best possible wrap-around response available.
Today I wish to confirm that I have asked the HSE to proceed with the filling of four posts of regional coordinators for services for child victim of sexual abuse. I see this as a critical step in delivering on the objectives of Ferns 4 and to develop the ‘coordinated national approach’ we so often speak of.
I can also today inform you that HSE is also now proceeding to fill four posts of regional coordinators for services for children demonstrating sexually harmful behaviour. As I already noted. the report published today finds that 37% of perpetrators of sexual violence against child survivors were themselves aged under 18. This recruitment delivers on a key recommendation of Ferns 5.
I said our first priority is to coordinate. Our second priority, despite the persistent financial challenges, must be, where possible, to supplement existing service provision.
Already, positive developments are underway. Let me give one example in the area of forensic medical assessment. Under the current HSE Capital Funding Programme, there are plans to build a new Medical Forensic Service at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin; and funding has also been allocated for increased training, at UCD, for Paediatricians dealing with sexual assault and forensic assessment.
This is welcome. But I know more ‘supplementing’ is required.
I look forward to the Ferns 4 steering committee finalising its report shortly as I know its’ recommendations will play a pivotal role in guiding decisions on further coordination and supplementing; and I will be working closely with Gordon Jeyes to move quickly to implementing what we can.
Conclusion
Just think for a minute about the reaction to the investigating Gardai of the families of the two young girls who were so grievously assaulted in Athlone.
The families could not have given more praise to those Garda officers.
That’s a world away from the mistrust of just a few years ago.
We have come out of a century-long dark place, when it comes to child sexual abuse. So much attention has rightly been given to the past atrocities against Ireland’s children that there’s a danger of us drawing a line in the sand where no line should be drawn. That we have at least addressed past horrors should not distract from the reality that the present carries its own horrors for our children. The present brings suffering, and fear and confusion to sexually abused children. It is, sadly, not just an historic issue.
Accordingly, we must seek to prevent, to protect and to act when neither protection nor prevention works. We must refine and specialise so that abused children get the response they actually need.
I know I am surrounded here today by experts who care passionately about the need to respond effectively and who know that if we had a hundred million euro to put into this area, right now, it still wouldn’t be enough.
This area of inhuman treatment of children sits within the wider picture of cruelty, neglect and misery.
Together, we can cast a web of protection and care around children.
Because that’s what every generation of children need...
Thank you.