Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Strategic Plan 2016-2018: Engagement with Ombudsman for Children

9:00 am

Dr. Niall Muldoon:

That is the sort of consideration to be borne in mind. It requires flexibility and supporting somebody who will take a different decision. We need to create that ethos in the system. We need to support people from the highest level to do that. It involves an element of risk for everybody concerned. I hope we will get there. We are starting to move in that direction. Including a reference to the best interests of the child in the Constitution is a huge start in this regard. It supports us in some way. Within education, that is the most obvious place for that to work. We see it all the time in schools. It is great to see adjustments being made and flexible approaches. Many schools are fantastic in this regard. Others are not because they are a little less flexible. It is the same with the decisions in all public services. Obviously, the majority of children are in education. There are 900,000 in the education system. That is where the highlights are. That is our response.

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