Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like other Members, I welcome the publication of the proposed wording of this amendment to the Constitution. It has taken 20 years, 17 major reports into child-protection failings and repeated promises from successive Governments to get this far.

As the House will be aware, Irish society has fundamentally changed since the Constitution was first written and I welcome this proposed reform. Hopefully, it will ensure, for the first time ever, that the State will recognise the rights of children as individuals and not only as part of a family. It is extremely important that the child can be recognised as a full citizen of the State, within and separate from the family.

While the wording of the Government's proposed amendment is not exactly in line with what was agreed at the cross-party Oireachtas joint committee, I welcome that it goes a long way to achieve the committee's shared objectives.

The question facing us, as legislators, is whether the final wording of the amendment be strong enough to ensure that it will protect all the children in the State from official neglect and abuse. We all hope that it will become the keystone of one of the most important commitments laid out in the 1916 Proclamation of which other Members spoke, to "cherish all the children of the nation equally", and ensure that becomes a reality.

When I first came into this House a number of years ago, I took part in discussions on legislation on children with special needs. The aspiration of those of us who took part in that debate and all the different groups that came in was that the legislation would pave the way to improve matters for children with special needs and their parents. One of the most important points we made at the time was that they would only be aspirations unless the Government followed through with resources and supports for those families and, unfortunately, many families have been left in the situation where the child has been left without those supports. It is important that we have these rights written in the Constitution but unless they are written in stone and the supports are in place, we fail children once again.

Later we will discuss other children, those in the institutions etc., who we failed in the past and I welcome the fact that we will have another opportunity to reflect on that. We in this House would all accept that we failed many of those children in the past, we are failing children at present and the important point coming out of this is that we must not fail children in the future.

The amendment is designed to ensure that the interests of the child will be paramount in any court proceedings taken by the State relating to child protection, adoption, guardianship, custody and access. While it is a welcome development to enshrine this in the Constitution, the Government must place the welfare of children to the forefront of their minds and review their harsh cuts to social services and overall austerity measures, which are detrimental to the well-being of vast numbers of children across the State.

Recent figures from the CSO's "Survey on Income and Living Conditions" show that more than 200,000 children across the country are living in poverty. This is an increase of 30,000 from two years ago. This is happening under the Government's watch - 30,000 extra children in poverty. Conditions can be linked directly to the decision to turn private debt into sovereign debt. It is unacceptable that the Government is standing idly by while thousands of children live in poverty, and this report suggests that the number is rapidly increasing.

While the Government proposes to introduce more harsh austerity measures, including cutbacks on social welfare, education and health which impact on the well-being of children, one in four between the ages of 12 to 17 is living below the poverty line according to the CSO.

The CSO report also states that if social welfare allowances were excluded from the survey, 38% of households nationwide would be at risk of poverty. This clearly shows the importance of welfare schemes and transfers in protecting families from the poverty trap. I know at first-hand the number of families who are struggling to make ends meet at the end of the week in the current atmosphere of drastic cuts on social spending and tax increases which are affecting the most vulnerable.

People are already at breaking point trying to pay household charges, yet we see major residential energy price increases. This will inevitably see more families dragged further into fuel poverty where they will have to choose between paying for basic household items or living in a home that is heated. It was only the relatively mild winter we had last year that saved many people from the dangers of fuel poverty, but the concern is that fuel poverty will happen. While the Government is focusing on legislating to protect children, it must also ensure that its policies do not endanger the well-being of children by pushing their families further into poverty.

In the same week the wording to the amendment was published, the Irish Refugee Council published a report entitled: State Sanctioned Child Poverty and Exclusion. The report dealt with the shocking conditions and treatment that children of asylum seekers now face. It highlighted in shocking detail the major overcrowding issue in direct provision centres in which asylum seekers are accommodated and indicated that children staying in them are at serious risk of malnourishment. There are currently 5,098 people in State-provided direct provision centres and over one-third of these, 1,789, are children. Some were born in or have lived their whole lives in Ireland, as processing for asylum seekers takes anywhere from one to seven years. Due to overcrowding issues, these centres pose a risk to the well-being of children.

According to a report from the special rapporteur for children, Geoffrey Shannon, there is a "real risk" of child abuse in direct provision centres because single parents and their children sometimes have to share a room with strangers. In addition, sometimes the families of teenage children of opposite genders are required to share one room. Given the history of child abuse in State run institutions here, the Government

should tackle this problem immediately to ensure that no child, no matter its nationality, is under threat while in State care. The State is also failing to provide many families with enough nutritious food. The report states:

Lack of appropriate food and the inability of parents to provide food for their children is a common theme in residents' lives in direct provision. The result of the inadequate provision of food has been: instances of malnutrition among children and expectant mothers, ill-health related to diet among babies and young children, weight loss among children, hunger among adults (as a result of family rationing) and chronic gastric illness among children of all ages.

This is unacceptable. It reads like a description of the conditions from which many of these families were trying to escape. I agree with the recommendations of the Irish Refugee Council's report, which call for an independent inquiry into the long list of complaints, grievances and child protection issues reported by residents and children of the State-run direct provision centres for asylum seekers.

Passing this referendum will not ensure that children are fully protected in our society. The Government also needs to protect children whose well-being is threatened by socioeconomic factors and those children in the care of the State. While the amendment to the Constitution is welcome, it will not change that fact that Government policies continue to place thousands of children at risk every day. Deputy Flanagan spoke earlier about the Children's Rights Alliance and a child-centred approach that would allow the thousands of children in State care the opportunity of a loving and stable family home and about ensuring that judges listen to children when a decision is to be made in a court or family case. We have the opportunity now to move beyond child abuse.

I look forward to the referendum and to discussing the issues on the doorsteps with constituents. People should vote "Yes" on this. I do not agree with those in the "No" camp on this, although I accept the view that we could make stronger recommendations. Perhaps we should be moving towards not only poverty-proofing many policies but towards child-proofing them. I look forward to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs being the champion of this and hope she will ensure that legislation coming before the House will be child-proofed so as to ensure we do not repeat the mistakes made by society, the State and the Government with regard to children in the past.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this and I hope to speak later on tonight on the issue of the hurt still being created in people's lives due to our failure to legislate with regard to those hurt in the past. I hope and pray - not something I do very often - that we do not return to this in 20 years and find families and children in the same situation we have had in the past. This amendment is a genuine effort by the Minister, the Government and those who sat on the committee to deliver for children. Hopefully, we have it right this time.

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