Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

Since the publication of the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children last February, it has become glaringly obvious that the Government is not prioritising the needs of our children. I commend the Labour Party and Sinn Féin on their attempt to move the process forward by bringing this motion to the floor of the House.

Far too often in this State, the best interests of our children have been ignored. Tragically for some Irish children, the State's reaction was far too little, too late with the result that young lives have been ended prematurely. It is clear from the manner in which it went about its work that the proposals from the Oireachtas committee have the potential to result in greater respect for children's rights in practice and in law. We signed up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child almost 20 years ago. This should have been the catalyst to bring Irish law and practice into line with the principles of children's rights. The issue of children's rights straddles many aspects of our daily lives in terms of our families and our education, welfare and justice systems.

I acknowledge in particular the work done to date on children's interaction with the justice system. It is progressive that the Children Act 2001 established an independent juvenile justice system under the stewardship of Ms Michelle Shannon. Excellent work has been carried out in this field over the past several years and the results are becoming clear. However, having committed to this system the Government must renew its commitment to the process.

A case management system is being piloted in Dublin's north inner city under Chief Superintendent Pat Leahy to deal with youth crime. An individual garda is assigned to co-ordinate all aspects of a young person's case. This system is child centred, effective and efficient and every effort should be made to roll it out nationally. I would not like to see an initiative such as this suffer from cutbacks. There is no doubt from the pilot results that the scheme offers children who are in conflict with the law a better chance of a positive outcome.

The fact that St. Patrick's Institution continues to hold juveniles as young as 16 as well as young men of 21 flies in the face of the UN convention and the best interests of children. I have no doubt this contributes to the recent statement by the retiring governor of Mountjoy, Mr. John Lonergan, regarding the research published in 2008 which illustrated that up to 72% of individuals in Mountjoy spent time in St. Patrick's during their youth. We need to break the link between children's detention and young men's detention. The provision of a new specific national child detention facility at Oberstown, near Lusk in County Dublin, is an initiative that must not be put on the long finger. It is all very well to have concept designs and detailed models but the replies to parliamentary questions I have submitted on the matter indicate that the timeline for delivery of the project has been extended. It started with a commitment that phase one would be completed by 2012, a deadline that now stands at mid-2013. I appeal to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, as he prepares his submission to the Department of Finance on next year's budget, not to stall on this vital project.

I have made the point on many occasions that gangland criminals exploit our decision to raise progressively the age of criminal intent to 12 years. Children under this age cannot be prosecuted under law and there is evidence that criminal gangs are using this as a loophole. While we will have to deal with this issue through specific legislation, a constitutional amendment on children's rights will help.

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