The tragic death of an 18 year-old woman, in the first and last year of her adult life, a mother already of two young children, demands a much deeper and more effective response than a couple of days in the media headlines. While I welcome the announcement this evening that the Eastern Regional Health Authority has asked Mr. Justice Frederick Morris to carry out a case management review, it must not be accepted as an adequate response before moving on to other business. The substance of Justice Morris's findings, allowing for confidentiality, must be made public. The statement from the regional health authority does not make it clear whether the findings will be made public. Will the Minister clarify that? If this woman's life means anything, we must learn from her death and prevent the deaths of others.
We must not scapegoat the hard-pressed front-line staff of the Northern Area Health Board who are working under severe pressure due to shortages of personnel and resources and an increasing number of very troubled, frequently addicted, young people. These young people, our fellow citizens in the brave new world of the Celtic tiger, and the health professionals who are striving to make a difference to their lives, must be given the priority that Justice Peter Kelly so single-mindedly demands for them. They need social workers, secure places to live with supportive care, addiction treatment, protection from exploitation and psychological and/or psychiatric care. These are services which our developed, rich economy does not, to our shame, provide. Kieran McGrath, editor of The Irish Social Worker, wrote two weeks ago that “literally thousands of cases of suspected child abuse are unlocated”. Have we learned anything from the revelations of abuse perpetrated on a previous generation of children? Will we look back on this time too and wish we had looked closer?
I press the Minister to realise the urgency of appointing more social workers to this area. It has been pointed out repeatedly that there is an acute shortage of social workers to deal with these very vulnerable young people. These young people's needs are urgent and immediate: the response from Government is the opposite. The Ombudsman for children Bill has still not been published and therefore has little or no chance of being enacted before this Government goes out of office after five years. A children's Ombudsman could be the catalyst for action that is so lacking. His or her office would inevitably show up what is happening in the cold world of ‘at risk' children.
The woman who died was legally an adult, but she reportedly had the mind of a child. I ask the Minister to address the particular needs of those whose chronological age might suggest a lesser need for protection but who, clearly, cannot cope with adult responsibility. This could be addressed in the Disabilities Bill, which will be debated shortly.
This woman's short life is over. I did not know her and it is unlikely that many people with the power to change things did. We have the power to change things for others like her and it is urgent that we do so.
