Dr. Niall Muldoon:

If we get stuck in the here and now, we might think there has not been progress, but in the past 20 years there is no doubt the child's voice has come to the fore. We trust and listen to our children in a different way. I would have been critical of the Department of education as being the least child-friendly system in the country up until five years ago, despite meeting every child. Ironically, the crisis of Covid meant it brought on board the children's voice through the ISSU, the Irish secondary schools union, which it listened to about the leaving certificate. Since then, it has created its own child participation unit. The curriculum reform is also being done through listening to children. That is a positive element. The NCCA, the curriculum assessment people, will listen to children all over the country to get better results. That is a model we need to bring to every Department so that they listen to children.

On specific areas, we have recently engaged with the Department of justice, which has provided special advocate support for children who were defendants in court and did not understand what was going on and were just nodding and saying "Yes". They then go out and breach their bail not knowing what they have actually said "Yes" to. There are approximately 1,500 children that way. We only took children out of adult prisons in 2017. That is not so long ago. We think we are a modern country. It was also only in 2017 when direct provision recipients were allowed to come to us. Before that they were not given any right to complain. Children's education has also changed completely. The new primary school now has children in circles. They talk in groups and work together. Their voice is a greater part of their development there. There is more understanding across the system that children are important. There has been huge progress in that regard.

Changes still need to be made. Members have heard some of the things we are doing. Across disability there is more awareness of what we need to do. There is still not the consistent co-operation to make it happen across bodies. That is the crucial bit. Foster parents should not be coming to us saying they need help to get a wheelchair for their foster child. That should just be automatic. It should be the case that if you have a child who needs a wheelchair, they should be able to get one every few years and send on the receipt, end of story. We still have parents who have to take pictures of their child to prove they have only one leg. That means the child is sitting there in their underwear. You could sort of live with that when you are four or five, but not when you are 14 or 15. There are small things that are not compassionate but are still happening just because they are built into the system. There is a lot of work to be done in that regard.