Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I thank the committee for the invitation to discuss our work and, in particular, the reports of 2021 and 2022. As you said, a Chathaoirligh, I am joined by Dr. Carmel Corrigan and Ms Ciara Gill. As the committee will be aware, the Ombudsman for Children's office was established in 2004 by the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002. I am the second Ombudsman for Children. I was appointed in 2015 by President Higgins and reappointed for a second and final time in 2021. The office is an independent statutory body with two main roles: to deal with complaints made by or on behalf of children about the actions of public organisations, and to promote the rights and welfare of children under 18 living in Ireland. I will now outline some of the work my office has completed in 2021 and 2022.

Our annual report for 2021 was entitled Resilience Tested. That title reflected the challenges faced by children, families and public services in 2021 to keep going in the face of restrictions and lockdowns. In that year, 2,126 complaints were made to the Ombudsman for Children's office, which was a 79% increase on the previous year. Of those complaints, 908 related specifically to Covid issues such as restrictions in schools, uncertainty around the leaving certificate, face masks and supports for children with disabilities. Education was again the subject of most complaints to the Ombudsman for Children's office, OCO, accounting for 53% of the total complaints. Bullying accounted for 10% of those education-related complaints.

Our 2021 annual report also included stories of some of the children on whose behalf we worked in that year, including the story of James Jnr. and Rosie, whose family were finally moved to a permanent house after living in substandard emergency accommodation for three years, and whose parents say those children are now like "new children". We also heard the story of 12-year-old Ella, who has dyslexia and who finally received a laptop for her schoolwork after very many delays, and how her case led to training being provided in order that no other child is impacted by a similar issue.

In 2021, we also published a significant investigation report, called No End In Site, which detailed the findings of an investigation of living conditions at a particular Traveller halting site. The local authority has since engaged with the families involved about their housing needs and has taken significant steps to improve the living conditions of the families on the site.

During 2021, we also participated in a project organised by the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children and UNICEF about the impact of Covid-19 on children's rights. We carried out what is called a child rights impact assessment to determine the impact of school closures on children's rights. It showed the negative impact those closures had on children as well as the lack of consideration given to children and their rights in the decisions made that impacted them.

We engaged with a number of legislative and policy developments throughout the year. They included proposals around the admission of children to, and their treatment in, inpatient mental health facilities contained in the general scheme of the mental health (amendment) Bill 2021; the consideration given to children in the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022; the development of the new national family justice system; and the review of the Equality Acts.

As visits to the office were not permitted during 2021, we delivered our children's rights workshops to 405 children remotely, through Zoom. Six transition year students participated in online work experience with us during that year.

Our newly established youth advisory panel, YAP, met a total of nine times during 2021, and all those meetings were held on Zoom. The YAP engaged in a range of work over the year and its input was invaluable. It provided advice and input on the development of the OCO's children's report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. It also identified priorities for the office's forthcoming strategic plan for 2022 to 2024. The YAP identified the issue of period poverty as one it wanted to highlight and, with our support, wrote to politicians, policymakers and schools to highlight that issue. Deputy Bríd Smith raised a parliamentary question in response to that letter. Raising the issue has also resulted in our office changing its environment by providing free period products in all our office toilets.

During 2021, we decided to take a broader look at how Covid-19 had impacted children in the long term and how we could use our influence to make positive change. We decided to focus on child poverty and child homelessness. A Better Normal was an initiative to eliminate child poverty and eradicate child homelessness and it came out of this process. In it we sought a cross-party, time-limited Oireachtas joint committee to examine these issues further with children's rights as a primary concern. A Dáil debate on A Better Normal took place on 23 September 2021. We continue to call for the elimination of child homelessness and the eradication of child poverty.

In September 2021, the OCO hosted a webinar to launch Digital Voices, research carried out by TU Dublin on behalf of our office about how digital and social media might be mobilised to advance the implementation of children's rights to be heard in public decision-making. We welcomed a diverse range of stakeholders and speakers to that launch, including Philip Jaffé, from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Regina Jensdottir, who is head of the Council of Europe's children's rights division and council co-ordinator for the rights of the child; and Valeria Setti, who is European Commission co-ordinator for the rights of the child.

The OCO made a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council for its consideration as part of its review into Ireland's human rights record within the universal periodic review.

We also made a submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s day of general discussion, which had a focus on "Children in Alternative Care". That is a crucial topic for many thousands of children in Ireland.

Our 2022 annual report was published a month ago on 16 May. We called this report Falling Behind as it is clear from our work that on many issues, Ireland is starting to fall behind on children’s rights. There were 1,812 complaints made to our office in 2022 and education was once again the most complained about issue, with bullying, expulsion or suspension and special education resources featuring in many of the complaints. Falling Behind also features the stories of some of the children the OCO worked with last year. This includes the story of Aisling, who told us after making an allegation of bullying with a sexual dimension, the school made her feel responsible and that she was bullied by other students for reporting the abuse. The OCO took action and the school eventually apologised to Aisling with the board of management ultimately updating its policies.

We again engaged with a number of legislative and policy developments throughout 2022. These included the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2020, the review of Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying, further developments around the general scheme of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill and the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill. In June 2022, we also published Plan for Places, a report that focuses on forward planning of the provision of school places for children with special educational needs.

We decided to ensure children’s thoughts and experiences of pandemic were recorded so we launched our No Filter survey in February 2022 to hear directly from children and young people about life during this time. No Filter was an online survey featuring a wide range of questions based on common issues raised with the OCO and in the media. A total of 1,389 children who responded to the survey and it found nearly half of those surveyed felt their lives had changed significantly throughout the two-year pandemic. Some 74% experienced feelings of loneliness and 83% of the children surveyed felt the pandemic had some negative impact on their learning. Falling Behind also details the OCO’s direct engagement with children through our children’s rights workshops. As public health restrictions had been lifted, we were delighted to welcome 1,100 children to the office in 2022, as well as meeting children on outreach visits to schools, child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, inpatient units and Oberstown Children Detention Campus.

During 2022, we continued our engagement with the periodic monitoring and reporting process relating to Ireland’s implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our activities around that included: working with our YAP to produce Pieces of Us, a children’s report that consulted more than 5,000 children; producing a comprehensive alternative report for the UN committee that highlighted areas of concern and made recommendations about actions the State needs to take to advance the implementation of children’s rights; and travelling to Geneva with the members of the YAP in September 2022 to take part in a pre-sessional meeting with the UN committee and supporting them to take part in the children’s meeting with the committee in advance of the committee’s constructive dialogue with the State in January 2023. In October 2022, we held events in Sligo and Limerick for children with disabilities. Beyond Limits is our unique festival-style event for children and young people with disabilities and their families to enjoy an inclusive and accessible day of speakers, performances and activities. More than 1,000 people attended these two events.

In December 2022, we published Review of the Ombudsman for Children Act, which was commissioned independently. This report looks at how the role and remit of my office could be strengthened in a number of areas. We are working with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to progress the recommendations made in this report.

In both 2021 and 2022, we hosted Child Talks, which is an event we hold each year to mark World Children’s Day. This event gives a platform to children to speak about issues that are important to them. The 2021 event was held in the RDS and seven young people took part. Topics on the day included living with scoliosis, equality, climate change, treating children with respect, mental health, gender issues in farming, fast fashion and living in direct provision. The 2022 event was held in the library here in Leinster House and had a theme of "If I were Taoiseach for the day". A wide range of topics were covered, including homelessness, education reform, autism supports, accessibility, rural transport, female empowerment, the Irish language and listening to children.

The OCO will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year and has grown from the original two staff members to a current total of 37. In that time, the number and complexity of issues we are dealing with have also increased. Following the review of our Act, we are working with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to progress the recommendations contained in the report, which will extend our remit further. We have also agreed to take on a monitoring role in the actions pertaining to children within the Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and we hope the resources will be in place soon to make that a reality.

In conclusion, while the information given in this statement offers a broad overview of the work carried out by our office, it does not include all aspects of the work we carry out. Thank you again for your invitation to meet. My colleagues and I are happy to take questions.