THE Government should provide the funds required to establish and operate a hotline for missing children service without delay according to the Southsider who has tirelessly campaigned on the issue
Tom Brown, from Dundrum, has dedicated his life to
campaigning for a hotline since his sister Ellen Cross vanished without trace
in January 2000.
To mark the fifth anniversary of the date when the EU
first officially offered its support to the establishment of a hotline, Mr
Brown staged a 12-hour-long vigil outside the office of the EU Commission in
Dawson Street.
Last October, Minister Frances Fitzgerald announced
that she was committed to the creation of a missing children’s hotline number
and said she would set up a project group to ensure it was established.
Speaking in the Seanad, Minister Fitzgerald said she
hoped the hotline would be fully operational some time in 2012.
However, Mr Brown told Southside People last week that
he is not convinced that the Government will fulfill its promise as he says it
has so far failed to provide any solid commitment to fund the hotline.
At the beginning of February, the communications
regulator, Comreg, granted a licence to the Irish Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) to operate the hotline.
Mr Brown noted that the EU has indicated that it would
be willing to provide 80 per cent of the annual running cost of the hotline,
which he said would be in the region of
?¬110,000.
But he pointed out that the Government had failed to
commit to financing the remaining 20 per cent of the funding that would be
required.
According to Mr Brown, the service is already up and
running in 16 other EU member states.
“Ireland is in the process of setting it up and I am
insisting that we do so without further delays,
? he said.
“I cannot understand
why the Government has not provided the rest of the funding needed to set this
up.
“I am asking the Irish public and people all across
the EU to demand that by May 25 of this year the remaining EU states and any
future member states give a commitment to set up this vital service as soon as
possible.
?
On February 7, in response to a parliamentary
question, Justice Minister Alan Shatter revealed that since the beginning of
2000 some 44 women and 319 children have been reported missing in the State and
have yet to be traced.
Rhona McGinn, ISPCC spokesperson, said the children’s
charity has applied to the EU for 80 per cent of the funding needed to set up
and run the hotline.
In addition, she said the ISPCC is reiterating a call
it made previously on the Government to provide the remaining 20 per cent in
funding needed to run the hotline.
“It was great to get the allocation of the licence,
?
she said.
“We have the skills and the expertise and we are the best
organisation to run it. But we couldn’t afford to do it without financing.
?
A spokesperson at the Department of Children said the
issue of funding had not been raised by the ISPCC with their project group.
“It is intended that the project group will meet the
ISPCC in the coming weeks,
? the spokesperson added.