RTÉ has uncovered that in the last two years 88 claims of abuse - sexual, physical and/or emotional - were made against HSE staff. Of these claims, 11 were upheld while 18 are the subject of ongoing investigations. Presumably the rest were dismissed?

What is not clear from the RTÉ report is who investigated the HSE complaints. Was it the HSE itself, or an independent body? Were the complaints reported to the civil authorities?

What has happened to the staff against whom complaints were upheld? Have they been dismissed? Have they resigned? Have actual crimes been committed in some cases and if so have the Gardai been contacted?

When the investigations of complaints were taking place were the relevant staff members suspended from their duties as now happens in the Church.

Why did it take a Freedom of Information request from RTÉ to be able to obtain these figures? Have there been more than 88 claims? Let us bear in mind that at one point we were informed by the HSE that 'only' 24 children had died while in its care in the last decade. This was later increased by a multiple of that.

A patient advocacy group, Dignity 4 Patients, insists that the 88 claims are probably only the tip of the iceberg and that abuse of patients is widespread both within and without the HSE.

As usual it would appear that not one senior figure in the HSE is being held accountable for abuses that took place under their watch. Perhaps, it would be unfair to hold anyone accountable because it could be the case that they did not know what was happening. But we should be told.

Two years ago a major investigation was conducted into the HSE's implementation of the State's child protection policy, Children First. It found grave inadequacies, many of which have still not been rectified.

Another question; where is the public and media outrage? Why is it saved mainly for abuse scandals within the Church? All of the questions posed above could be answered if the major media pursued the HSE. But there were almost no pick-up of the RTÉ story by other media.

Some might ask is it proper for a Catholic paper to raise any of this or are we merely trying to distract attention from the Church's abuse scandals? Actually, if anything is the case it is that the Church scandals have distracted media attention from other, more recent abuse scandals and these have not been pursued with sufficient diligence as a result.

It is no wonder many Catholics suspect media bias. Abuse scandals in the Church must be pursued with total vigour, but so should abuse scandals elsewhere. This is not happening and we are entitled to ask why.

So are the victims of those other organisations.