Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I join some of my Fine Gael colleagues in questioning the purpose of the motion. While I welcome the opportunity to debate youth issues I would rather debate them in the context of a clear purpose. We can all offer our views but I would like action. If this is an attempt to reach out to young people I am not persuaded this method will succeed. Clearly there is a lack of legislation coming through the House. Obviously that is one of the reasons for the debate and why we have had so many statements in recent weeks. Our primary purpose is to bring legislation through. If this debate led to that I could see a better purpose in it.

I would like to know whose idea it was to have this debate. Since we have it, I will proceed in that vein. The speech of the Minister of State with responsibility for children was a classic one. It made clear exactly what he thinks his job is because it is difficult to see what it is. It is supposed to co-ordinate Departments but it is not clear that it is doing that. He told the House he had three goals. It is not particularly taxing for him if that is all he has. The three goals are, first, to give young people a voice in accordance with their maturity — that is fair enough; second, to have their lives better understood — to have their lives understood by whom was not clear; and, third, that young people will receive quality supports and services — no one could disagree with that.

The Minister of State went on to tell the House about Dáil na nÓg, the youth councils and so on. I accept they are very valuable, fulfil a need and are of enormous benefit to the children who participate. However, only a limited number of young people get to participate in Dáil na nÓg and in youth councils. I welcome the councils, particularly at second level where they are obviously more inclusive because they are in many schools. Young people have told me they do not always cover the broad range of young people within a particular school. Those who are more pushy and better able to talk get on to these councils while the quieter people, those who may need more assistance, are left behind. I congratulate those young people who participate in these bodies. I congratulate also the Ombudsman for Children on her work in accessing young people, getting them involved and hearing their views. I still have to question how all this informs Government policy and Government decisions and I will return to that issue.

In his speech the Minister of State mentioned a few websites, some of which are up and running, while some are on the way. In regard to the most important aspect of his third goal, quality supports and services, there is no mention of the services, what he means by this, how young people will access them, their cost and where they will be located. It is a broad catch-all woolly concept. It is a meaningless aspiration in some ways; it sounds lovely but what does he mean by it?

I turn to some real issues affecting young people, bearing in mind that yesterday was universal children's day. The Government's concern for children is very selective. An example of this is the failure of the Government which signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, three articles of which we are clearly in breach of. We continue to subject approximately 3,000 young children to the habitual residence condition for child benefit. The effect of this is that approximately 3,000 children go without basic necessities, such as, medicine, food and adequate clothing. The State in general, the Government and the Opposition, have always agreed that child benefit is a plank to remove children from poverty. Everyone in the House would respect the work of Sr. Breege Keenan of the Vincentian Refugee Centre. She said:

We see children all the time whose parents cannot give them the most basic requirements. These include suitable food and dietary supplements, over the counter medicines like Calpol and even simple play things are often way beyond the means of these parents.

If we want to discuss youth and treat all young children in this country the same we cannot continue to enforce a policy which segregates a particular group of children and leaves them with €9.20 per week. I appreciate that food and so on are provided in the hostels in which they live. The schools tell me children are unable to buy books but are not eligible for the free books scheme. They are unable to participate in school tours and where contributions are expected in the schools they are not able to participate. They cannot access basic requirements such as over-the-counter medicines. This is a real issue and one which the Government should go back to the drawing board and reconsider. The groups who got together — the Free Legal Advice Centre, Barnardos, the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, Children's Alliance and so on — called on the Government yesterday to change this commitment. My colleague, Deputy David Stanton, spoke out against it in 2004 when it was introduced. If anything meaningful is to come from the motion I ask the Government to reconsider the imposition of this on children.

There are a few issues that particularly affect young people, be they children or young teenagers, one of which is bullying. The State has failed to provide a national anti-bullying strategy. One project was carried out by Trinity College and piloted in Donegal. The Norwegian Government adopted that model as the best one it could find. Yet we in Ireland have failed to adopt our own pilot project despite the fact that it was successful. It is clear that if a child is bullied the effects last for three years within that child's family, as proved by statistics. This is an issue we have failed to tackle. We can talk about giving them quality of life in other areas but if we do not implement policies such as this we are putting them at a disadvantage.

The Government has failed to roll out the Stay Safe programme to every primary school, despite the fact that it can be of such enormous help to children. It teaches them what is and what is not appropriate in terms of the behaviour of adults and strangers towards them. It is not accessible to every child whose parents want them to access it. My colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, outlined the clear problems in the area of psychological assessments last night and I have done so in the past. We are failing children from an early age. Deputy Neville touched on the psychiatric services which has been a big issue in recent months and years. I listened to it being debated on the radio yesterday afternoon when a number of parents telephoned to say their children are not able to access basic services. While I do not want to be political, because this is such a sensitive point, a motion such as this should state how we intend to deal with that, how we will fund that and create real change in children's lives.

On the issue of sports and play facilities for children, when I became a member of Offaly County Council in 1999 there was not one playground in County Offaly although there had been when I was a child. That position has changed. I congratulate the Government on the provision of grants for three playgrounds in Birr, Tullamore and Clara. A further two are on the way in Banagher and Ferbane. What happens in the rest of the county? The entire north of Offaly is without a playground because the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who was hardly a day in the office, scrapped the playground grant. We can talk around all these things but if we are serious about children learning socialisation skills, learning how to get on with each other and to play with each other, they must have somewhere to do it. They cannot do it at home on their own. That is one severe criticism I would make.

I acknowledge the work of the various sporting organisations around the country. I agree that a great deal of money has been provided through the national lottery to sporting organisations. Most of the time it is for us to sit and watch. I am concerned that greater investment is needed to allow children and young people to participate. We have to get away from the notion that the answer to all young people's problems is sport because there will always be a section of young people who will not engage in sport. Other avenues have been tried such as music schools and dance. What young people want is simple — they want funding for this type of programme throughout the country. There should be greater use of school facilities so these activities can be provided.

I disagree with colleagues anywhere in the House who claim young people do not have values. While that was not necessarily said during this debate, it is an awful statement and one that has been made in the past. Young people may have different values but the ombudsman's report clearly showed the huge percentage for whom the most important issues were family and care, which does not represent any great change in values from the position 30 years ago.

We must realise young people do not pick their habits off the ground but are to a large extent brought upon them by society and advertising. It is not young people but adults who spend huge sums on advertising yet it is often targeted at the young, who are subject to many negative influences that may change their behaviour. Members of the House have a duty to respond and to help families and parents deal with the pressures of life and in so doing to help young people.

The motion refers to obesity. My major concern with the motion is that it is like a slap on the back in that it claims we are doing a great job, which is not the case. Some 200,000 people are affected by eating disorders but there are just three public beds for the entire country, and these are only accessible to people over the age of 18. If we want to help young people, we must examine these issues.

The Minister of State with responsibility for drugs, Deputy Carey, is present. While I do not have time to deal with that issue today, I hope we can discuss it at another time.

See this speech in context