Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. Sinn Féin welcomes the proposed referendum on children's rights. As a State and a society, we are all too aware of our abysmal record in terms of the protection of children. Therefore, any measures and particularly legislative measures which safeguard and protect the rights of children, are significant and important. Since the foundation of the State and particularly since the enactment of Bunreacht na hÉireann, children and their accompanying rights were essentially subsumed within the rights of the family. Indeed, specifically child-centred rights are most notable in the 1937 Constitution by their almost total absence. The imposed invisibility, which is enshrined in law, has had major ramifications for the well-being of successive generations of Irish children.

In 1993, speaking during the Kilkenny incest investigation, Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness noted that "the very high emphasis on the rights of the family in the Constitution may consciously or unconsciously be interpreted as giving a higher value to the right of parents than to the rights of children". The current lack of rights for children in the Constitution places significant restrictions on the legislation that may be enacted and on judicial decisions. Moreover, in many instances, children's rights arise merely as a consequence of their membership of a family, defined in constitutional case law as the marital family. The proposed legislation, should it pass by way of referendum, will essentially give rights to children in their own right for the first time since the foundation of the State.

We welcome this proposal to acknowledge the rights of children as individuals under the Constitution. Nevertheless, Sinn Féin has several concerns in regard to specific provisions. Our first concern relates to language, particularly the vague and abstract nature of sections of the Bill. The proposed Article 42A, for example, begins thus: "The State recognises and affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, by its laws protect and vindicate those rights." While the reference to "natural and imprescriptible rights" already appears in Article 42.5.5, there is no legislative or constitutional precedent defining exactly what these rights entail. In other words, it will be left to the Supreme Court to define what is meant by such rights. The lack of clarity in this regard is worrying. Moreover, while the Bill makes provision for the best interests of the child to be given paramount consideration, this applies only in instances where the State itself has taken a case regarding the child's safety, welfare, guardianship, custody and so on. Conversely, the courts are not obliged to consider the best interests of the child in cases where the State is a respondent or defendant.

The bottom line is that rights, be they economic, educational, to do with health care, the arts, sports or whatever, cost money. Unfortunately, as we in this House know only too well, when it comes to cutting spending in crucial areas of social provision which directly impact the lives of children, this Government has no qualms about slashing budgets. Lone parent households remain at risk of experiencing persistent poverty. Children of asylum seekers are still subjected to all the negative and destructive aspects of life in direct provision. Traveller children who benefited little from the boom years remain among the most excluded in Irish society. Moreover, not only has the State failed to address this appalling situation, it has actively engaged in the reproduction of Traveller inequality and disadvantage through the various educational reforms which eliminated resource teachers for Traveller children. One in ten children under 17 years of age in this country now lives in consistent poverty. An additional 20%, or 250,000 children, are at risk of poverty, as are children living in households headed by an unemployed person.

For these reasons, while Sinn Féin welcomes and supports the proposed constitutional amendment, we will continue to oppose the cruel and vicious measures which plunge so many ordinary families, including large numbers of children, into poverty. It was recently brought to my attention in my constituency that Youghal Town Council has taken upon itself, with the permission of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, to include the foster carer's allowance as part of household income when determining the weekly rent allocation for a council house. As a result, a constituent of mine who is fostering four and a half year old twin girls has seen her weekly rent go from €32 to €120. When I contacted the Health Service Executive to inquire about this hike, the staff member to whom I spoke was adamant that it could not be the case. Likewise, the official at the Department of Children and Youth Affairs with whom I spoke was appalled by what she heard and said it should not have been done. It seems, however, that such matters can indeed be determined by each local authority and, as such, it is a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. It is appalling that local authorities are taking so much money from the children for whom this particular allowance is intended.

Child poverty damages children's lives in many ways. While a lack of adequate income is at the core of the problem, it is the knock-on effects such as exclusion from adequate education and play, poor quality housing and inadequate and delayed access to health care, which make a real difference to a child's welfare and fundamentally determine his or her life chances. Sinn Féin supports the proposed constitutional amendment and welcomes any measure that enshrines the rights of children in the Constitution. We remain, however, firmly opposed to Government cuts which negatively impact the life chances of children and their families.

See this speech in context