Ms Tanya Ward:

I thank the Deputy. It is great to hear that a consultation happened in Cork because that is critical when doing a piece of childproofing of a local development plan. It is one of the key things that should be done.

We are seeing many countries across Europe start to do what are called child rights impact assessments. These are checklists of different things that decision makers need to think about if they are trying to make sure that their service, or local plan of delivery, is in line with the interests and rights of children. The way many companies, organisations or public authorities operate means that they are not necessarily making decisions that have the rights or best interests of children at their heart. That means resources go in a different direction. They do not go towards walkways, playgrounds, local facilities and so on that children might need in local areas. We know that the Government is exploring and thinking about how this could work. Again, it would be great to trial this on a pilot basis to get some local authorities to adopt this approach and see what recommendations and changes it could lead to.

What is interesting around the Covid piece is that Scotland did a similar analysis when it was devising its Covid restrictions. After consulting with children's groups, authorities there decided to keep the playgrounds open.