Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's response in regard to some of the proposals he put on the table. I encourage him, as the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, to make these priority issues because we must deal with this problem. If we do not intervene early, we will have many other problems in the future. The Minister mentioned Atlantic Philanthropy, Chuck Feeney's organisation, which is making a contribution to support some of these projects on the ground.

The Minister will accept, when we talk about child poverty, that we can see very clearly that it leads to educational disadvantage and lack of stability, which leads to children dropping out of school and low self-esteem. We need to focus on these issues because if we do not, we will end up with more neglected children and more children at risk getting involved in drugs and ending up in our prison system. We are a great country for talking about children and we held a referendum on children's rights, but now is an opportunity to do something about them.

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