Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste the response. It is a prepared response for a question on the progress being made on housing. I welcome progress being made, but my question is child focused. It picks up on the analysis carried out by the two committees referred to by the Tánaiste. The housing committee has done very good work over the last few years on a number of proposals. However, I ask the Tánaiste to deal with the focus of my question, which is the status of children. The lives of children who are homeless and in those centres are being blighted, and in a way that might take some time to recover from, if ever. The way to deal with that is through the enactment of legislation which gives a right to children. It is a right we held a referendum on and which the people of Ireland enshrined in the Constitution, which is to have a child-centred approach. With regard to the legislation that has passed Second Stage and is to go to Committee Stage, will the Government give a commitment to have it enacted so the focus on the child will be domestic law?

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