Child-abuse activists warned Today that Ireland failed to learn the lessons from decades of unchecked brutality inside Catholic Church-run schools and still offers poor protection to vulnerable boys and girls, according to AP. This week's mammoth report into the abuse of thousands of children in Catholic-run schools blamed successive Irish governments for permitting rape and other sadistic practices inside the tax-funded facilities throughout most of the 20th century. The authors of the nine-year investigation offered a long list of recommendations to toughen and modernize the way children _ particularly those in state care _ are supervised and protected. The proposals included 24-hour emergency social care, surprise inspections of children's homes, and more rigorous enforcement of existing rules. The government of Prime Minister Brian Cowen, which is battling one of Europe's worst recessions and budget deficits, says it will enact the improvements as quickly as possible. Those on the front lines of child protection said they doubted that would happen. «People would be wrong to think that the danger is behind us. Ireland's child protection policies are still a generation behind the standards in the United Kingdom and the United States. Our leaders are far too complacent,» said Maeve Lewis, whose Dublin pressure group One in Four publicizes child sexual abuse in Ireland. Lewis noted that a string of child-abuse scandals involving church and lay abusers inspired a string of official inquiries and nearly 200 recommendations since 1993.
