Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an Bille seo. Tá sé an-tábhachtach ar fad i dtaca le cearta páistí sa sochaí seo. I warmly welcome the Bill. It is not everything it could be, but it is a welcome development. I applaud the Minister for it, as I know she has worked very hard to bring it to us and with other interested parties to develop it in the best way. This is a very important beginning in what I hope will be a serious reconstituting of the State to give it a strong rights-based foundation. The Constitution of 1937 was very much of its time. It was written 11 years before the Declaration of Human rights and 52 years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unfortunately, it has taken us this long to bring about an initiative to renew the Constitution and update the rights of the child. We must address the imbalance where a child's rights are superseded by those of his or her parents. The problem is that the amendment is narrow and only addresses specific situations which do not affect a lot of children. That is not to say, however, that it is not worth doing, but it could do more. We would like to see more being done. Sinn Féin has long been in favour of enshrining the rights of the child in the Constitution, at the minimum standard set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Some 23 years after publication of its report, we are still a long way from the convention's standards, but we welcome this move to bring us closer.

There is a problem with the amendment, in that despite enshrining "natural and imprescriptible rights", there are no specifics as to what these rights are, leaving them entirely to the Supreme Court's judgment. One could argue that the amendment is even meaningless, which is very disappointing. This is not surprising, however, given the Government's lack of desire to fund what could be considered rights. I hear the Minister of State with responsibility for housing talk about the right to a home, but she never really says what she will do to help secure and protect that right. Actual rights cost money, money the Government is not willing to spend. This draws into question the notion that it has any real dedication to the rights of citizens. On the day following a successful referendum, when this wording will be part of the Constitution, will the lives of the children of the State be all that different? It will surely make a difference to some children at risk who are neglected and not listened to, but it will do very little for those whom the State neglects.

My focus is on housing, but there is no accepted right to housing for any man, woman or child, despite fine words from the Minister responsible at Question Time and surreal speeches to housing associations. According to the CSO's very conservative figure, 457 children were homeless in the State. Where are the rights of these children? Where is their right to a home, shelter and nutrition? Where is their right to medical care and adequate living standards? Their right to free education does not mean much to them when not even their most basic rights are provided for. Not alone this, but the Government seems to have abandoned the goal of ending homelessness and it has done nothing to develop a youth strategy to end it, despite the requests of many groups working on homelessness issues and numerous calls for a strategy from me and Sinn Féin. These real rights would change things and lift people out of the indignity of living in an incredibly unequal society.

These rights cost money, rather than mere fine words with no meaning. This is money that Fine Gael and the Labour Party are not willing to spend. People like Rachel Peavoy, who froze to death in her flat in an empty block, are dying because of the lack of adequate housing. Many people who live in deplorable conditions have been waiting for years to be rehoused. Those who live in damp accommodation at Dolphin House, St. Teresa's Gardens and O'Devaney Gardens have seen their wallpaper go brown and fall off the walls. Their children are breathing in mould and have raw sewage in their drinking water, so it is no wonder that they are too sick for school some days. What of the rights of these children? What about those women who have to sleep on their mothers' couches, with their children snuggling into them for warmth, because they have no homes? What about the children who get up in the morning hungry, in unwashed clothes and without enough sleep, because their house is crowded with cousins and uncles and there is no bed for them? How can we say we know anything about the rights of children when we allow this to continue? Not only is the Government allowing it to continue - it is making it worse. It has presided over a calamitous catalogue of austerity measures. As a result, those who were already struggling are now barely able to survive. The Government has cut €116.8 million from the housing budget in the last year. It halved the funding for the regeneration project in Ballymun, where Rachel Peavoy died in her flat. Those who are living in squalor and suffering ill-health, due to the disrepair of their accommodation, can expect worse in the future as they are left in the mire.

I would like to speak about the cuts that have been imposed on people on rent supplement. Many of those who have been told they have a right to housing, as long as it involves the use of tax revenue to fund private landlords, are struggling to find a place that will let them rent. Rent supplement is a poverty trap which forbids them from moving out of unemployment. Now they have to lower the standard of accommodation they seek because it was costing too much. Does the Government think the people receiving rent supplement were living in luxury? Does it think they have the ability to tighten their belts, or is it just that the Government wants to tighten the noose? We must begin a process where the rights of people are taken seriously, rather then merely being mentioned in ministerial speeches which promise nothing but the same. We must change the system to enshrine not just a mention of rights but the specifics of what those rights are, and the State's responsibility to protect and provide for these rights. It is not 1937 anymore. We are living in the era of human, social, political and economic rights. We should begin to govern like that. We should provide for, protect and enshrine real rights for people, rather than more hot air. While I welcome this Bill, if it is the best the Government has to offer our children and the pinnacle of its understanding of rights and the State's responsibilities, we should all worry. Children are the future of this country. They should be respected and heard. I remember the case of Daniel McAnaspie, who was murdered. If legislation had been in place to enshrine his rights, maybe he would have been helped and his family would have been heard. We have had to face many such tragedies over the years.

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