Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge and welcome the positives in the report but the overall C grade awarded to the Government is a slip on the grade it achieved last year. This happened in a year we had for the first time a full Minister with responsibility for child and youth affairs sitting at the Cabinet table. Why is that? The slip would have been much worse were it not for the passage of the children's referendum, which had cross party support and the support of NGOs and the Children's Rights Alliance. The Minister did not once mention child poverty, for which the Government was given a fail, or mental health issues. He referred to the new child and family support agency, the establishment of which we support. The legislation to put the agency on a statutory footing was meant to be passed by December 2012. We have yet to see the heads of this important Bill, let alone have it pass through the Oireachtas. The Minister also referred to the Children First guidelines. The heads of the Bill relating to them were brought before the joint committee last May but the legislation has yet to come before the Houses to be implemented. The Minister, with all due respect, is not up to her job. She is not the advocate of children's right she should be. The greatest issue of all is the inability of the Government to keep children out of poverty. It is a sad reflection and it is a very poor reflection on the Minister that he has not even acknowledged this in his contribution.

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