Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I shall follow up on what Deputy Ó Caoláin has said and explain the rationale behind my amendment. The matter was brought to my attention by a Children's Rights Alliance submission, which stated the following:

A 2011 report on children's rights commissioned by the Ombudsman for Children, analysing ten cases which came before the Office, found that "the individual children appeared to be largely invisible in the decision-making process". In her 2012 Annual Report, the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, highlighted the lack of awareness amongst decision-makers of the detrimental impact that administrative decisions can have on children and their families. She criticised how these decisions were made with little or no regard for children's rights noting: "[i]n particular, the parameters of the child's best interests and the child's right to be heard were not used to guide administrative decision making to any great extent, if at all". Logan cites cases involving a lack of access to education, separating children from their parents and cases where children could not access necessary therapeutic equipment recommended by health professionals, due to bureaucratic processes. It is important to ensure the administrative decisions taken by all Agency employees impacting on individual children's lives will be covered by Section 9. This should apply in all cases of very young children as well as non-verbal children.