Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I am well aware of that but the problem is we also have more children than at any time in the history of the State. There are 10,000 extra children entering the primary school system every year. In absolute terms, the question is not about how many SNAs we have; it is about the ratio of SNAs to the number of children in the education system, specifically to the number of children with special needs, a number that is increasing. The fact is, by imposing caps the Government is reducing the level of support provided to the most vulnerable children. That is neglect, and if we are serious about protecting children that level of neglect should be criminalised.

Similarly, there is the removal or threatened removal of measures such as the domiciliary care allowance, again for parents of children with special needs, disabilities and so on. This is an instance of State neglect. Is the Government going to held legally responsible for that level of neglect, which is being inflicted on some of our most vulnerable children? There are the cuts imposed on disadvantaged schools and the cutbacks to front-line services. Some child mental health services are seeing only emergency cases and are turning away everything else. Waiting lists for speech and language therapy are extremely long; the availability of psychologists to do assessments is woefully inadequate. One of the parents involved in the DCA Warriors protest outside the Dáil the other day told me there are now no psychologists in County Cavan to provide assessments for children with special needs. That sort of situation is being replicated all over the State.

As I pointed out to the Tánaiste in the Dáil the other day, if we are serious when we talk about protection for children and preventing neglect and abuse, the most obvious obligation the State has is to provide housing, a roof to go over the heads of children that is of decent quality and secure. The State is failing abysmally in that. I do not know whether studies have been done on it but I would bet my bottom dollar that if one looks at the most vulnerable children, the victims of abuse and neglect, who have ended up in various institutions, there will be a correlation between that and coming from poor and inadequate housing conditions, housing insecurity, and so on. That is blatantly obvious. Yet the way in which the State is failing in its obligation to provide housing for some of the least well-off families and their children is getting worse by the day. Every week the cuts in rent caps are forcing dozens of families with young children into homelessness. Is that not neglect on the part of the State? Is it not a recipe to ensure that in certain cases those families will break down and the children involved will end up in very vulnerable situations where they could be victims of neglect and abuse?

That is a major failure of the State. I want to know whether, if this Bill is passed, the State will be guilty of a crime if it fails to provide the necessary supports, protections, resources and services for all our children, but particularly for our most vulnerable children, those with special needs, disabilities and from poor backgrounds. The State should be liable for those sorts of failures. Will it be a crime for us in this House, or for members of the public, not to report the Government for its criminal negligence when it comes to the protection of our children? One must wonder whether the raft of legislation coming through, all, on the face of it, formally and nominally good, all heading in the right direction and well-intentioned, is not just window dressing if we do not actually provide the resources and services required. The policy in regard to the provision of those resources and services, housing, psychological assessment, all the things that would protect children, is that they are being systematically cut and will be cut again in the budget of December and the one after it.

I ask the Minister and the Government to be consistent. This Bill is fine, as far as it goes. I would like to see the Children First Bill introduced as well but it will mean very little unless it is backed up with the resources and services our children, our most vulnerable citizens, require in order to be genuinely protected.

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