Sexual exploitation of children study is 'damning account' says Offaly influencer

While I appreciate the importance of highlighting the current RTE crisis and ensuring the public are informed appropriately with regard to these financial matters, it really does give me cause for concern as to why a far more shocking story has received little coverage since first reported at the end of June 2023. 

The recent explosive report “"Protecting Against Predators: A Scoping Study on the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People in Ireland" is a damning account of our failure to keep safe many children in the care of our state, yet where is the PAC committee calling to account those whose responsibility it is to ensure the protection of our most vulnerable children?  You would have to question the need for the number of politicians involved in questioning witnesses in the RTE scandal over many hours, while this other crisis is left without question by our politicians.

Protection needed

The paper report by Dr. Mary Canning and Ruth Breslin of UCD, found that vulnerable children in care in Ireland are clearly being targeted for sexual exploitation and abuse by “gangs of predatory men.” It reported numerous cases where children in the care of Tusla, the State’s child and family agency, were “being coerced or enticed to provide sex acts to multiple men in exchange for a variety of goods” including clothes and jewellery. Predatory gangs of men would identify residents where children in care are being accommodated and would wait around accommodation centres, even going so far as to wait in hotel lobbies where under-age girls were staying. In one shocking revelation, the paper report revealed that men were “hanging around hotel lobbies” in order to sexually exploit children that were being accommodated there as a temporary State care solution.

The report expressed fears that sexual exploitation of children is going “under the radar” in Ireland. I am totally heartbroken for the children that are mentioned or referred to in this report and if I sound outraged, it's because I am. I have teenage daughters. Many of you reading this will have children and young teenagers. The thought that this can be happening to children the same age as our own children should transfix us in horror and anger. It's clear that these men work together to groom vulnerable young children, who are often led to believe they are in a romantic relationship before then being exploited and abused.

Help needed now

Urgent action needs to happen now.  There can be no delays or excuses.  These children need to be protected.  Those responsible for ensuring their protection need to be called to question and the state needs to be assured that our children are safe. Why is nobody shouting about this issue?

Child poverty in Ireland

The number of children experiencing poverty and social exclusion in Ireland is appalling and it is a damning reflection of poor policy choices and decisions. Child poverty is not inevitable; it is often a result of an agenda that protects and favours the wealthiest to the detriment of the most vulnerable in society and those who have the least to give. It is simply unacceptable that children now represent almost 40% of all people in consistent poverty in our country of Ireland – this equates to close to 154,000 children. Too many children are growing up in hotel rooms; going to bed hungry and living in households struggling on inadequate incomes. In effect too many children are being denied a childhood.

Children growing up in poverty tend to experience the same fate as adults and that is why it is imperative that we tackle child poverty now to prevent the further entrenchment of a two-tier society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We have and especially the people in power have an opportunity to move away from the austere, punitive and regressive policies that were the hallmarks of people in authority and in power in the past and implement a more progressive humane approach that will make real inroads into child poverty and social exclusion.

Global child poverty

Also spare a thought for the other nine million little children who die globally each year in often horrendous circumstances, just because it is not on the news doesn't mean it's not a reality. We all should be ashamed. To live without hope is the most crushing of all burdens.

Everywhere I have travelled over the last almost 30 years with my work in the developing world, especially in famine and drought torn areas, I saw children with a look of despair. I was reminded of the words of the American writer James Agee, who said that: ‘ In every child who is born, under no matter what circumstances, the potentiality of the human race is born again, and in them too, once more and in each of us, is born again our terrific responsibility towards human life.’

How can you

So now we have a report that proves that children in the care of the Irish state are being abused by evil adults, not to mention those children in other parts of the world suffering such abuse predominantly as a result of poverty.  I asked God “how can you let these children live in this poverty? ”God replied through my prayers, “how can you?” So I say to all of us here in Ireland, How can we? How can we stand by when so many children are living in poverty in our country, many of which are being abused by evil adults?
I believe there can be a brighter future for our children in Ireland and indeed in our world, but we all must shoulder the burden to do all we can to protect and give genuine care to our children and indeed learn from what has happened in some of our institutions and many other situations where the lives of children have been affected, or ended, that have surfaced in the last few years. I remember the following prayer poem called ‘To my Child’ written by Sally Meyer about her beautiful son, who has autism that I first saw on the wall of a children’s hospice I visited that went as follows and probably will mean so much to every parent after seeing what happened to little vulnerable children at the hands of people in our country and world recently and over the years.

To my child

”Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face and laugh when I feel like crying. Just for this morning, I will let you choose what you want to wear, and smile and say how perfect it is. Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park and play. Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.
Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles. Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck, and I will buy you one if he comes by. Just for this afternoon, I won’t worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned. Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cakes, and I won’t stand over you trying to fix them. Just for this afternoon, I will take us to Supermac's and buy us both a Supermac's meal so we both can have toys.
Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you. Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry. Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars. Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favourite TV shows. Just for this evening, when I run my fingers through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.
I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers dealing with their children who have suffered the evil of abuse, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children’s graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can’t handle it anymore. And when I kiss you good night, I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then that I will thank God for you, and ask him for nothing, except one more day. Amen'

Children in need

Some of the images from my years of working in the developing world are fading from memory, but I think that these ones of child sexual abuse mentioned in this latest report, along with some of my other experiences during my times living in India and various parts of Africa of street children scavenging for food from trash bins and rubbish dumps won't fade any time soon. This is giving me cause to shout for help from those in authority to do something to address the issue of child poverty and ensure the safety of our children from evil predators.

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, look after your greatest treasure which is your children as this is a crucial time for them and for us and for all our children in Ireland and in our world. My prayer that I write now is a prayer for children in our communities -

"Dear Lord, I pray now for children who live without either of their parents: children whose parents have died, children taken away from their parents because of abuse or neglect, children that have been abandoned or have experienced being unloved and uncared for and children who have run away from home. You care for these little ones God, and not one of them is lost from your sight. Guide, guard and protect these children as they move in with relatives or caring families, as they live with foster parents or adopted parents into new families or as they struggle on the street or in homeless shelters. Comfort each one who feels unloved, unwanted, uncared for and afraid. Give wisdom to people, especially those in power who make decisions about children’s lives that they will make a difference for good in children’s lives. Empower those who care for them to be loving, caring, trustworthy and compassionate. Instill in our government leaders a passion and a will for protecting the most vulnerable especially our children in most need. Help us to reach out as individuals, parents and as a community to those who live without the protection and love of parents or family or indeed friends. We also pray for parents and children who have been wrongly separated, that you will end their agony and help them to be reunited. We pray for everyone’s needs but especially for our children and the world’s children that they may be cared for, loved and given the chance and right to life that every child deserves. Amen."