“Crumbling childcare system” – McVerry

“Daniel was still a child, he should not have died”.  So said Peter McVerry SJ, officiating at the funeral of  Daniel McAnaspie on Tuesday 9 June in the Church of the Annunciation, Finglas. The seventeen-year-old had been in the care of the HSE, and his body was found dumped in a field. Mourners listened as Fr McVerry told them that a contributing factor in Daniel’s death was the neglect of the State, which “bailed out bankers” while presiding over a “crumbling system of childcare”. He said that Daniel’s death, however, had created a momentum for changing that system, and “all of us, his family and friends, have a responsibility to ensure that the momentum is maintained until no child is at risk and every child’s needs are properly met”. To listen to Peter McVerry with Pat Kenny, click here; to read the Sunday Tribune’s profile of Peter, click here.