Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The last year has been difficult for all children, with schools closing, sports being cancelled and all the other activities that children do grinding to a halt. The Child Care Law Reporting Project has stated that already vulnerable children have been made more vulnerable by the coronavirus pandemic. It said that some children were so severely neglected that they had to be hospitalised. The coronavirus has exposed the State's failings. Children received support, security, welfare and nutrition in school and in other settings that in some cases was not available at home.

I have huge concern about these children and the situations they are in. In situations where the teacher, youth worker or sport coach was looking out for at-risk children, who is keeping an eye on them now? I recently received a response to a parliamentary question which stated:

From June 2020 to end of December 2020... a total of 100 social workers left the Agency of whom 90 resigned and 10 retired. An additional 7 social workers commenced a career break.

The cracks are there so who is filling them?

Child poverty was there before Covid-19, it has gotten worse during Covid-19 for some children and it will be there after Covid-19. Warm meals in schools and in other places filled the gaps but these children are missing that now. My party, Sinn Féin, has solutions. We put down a number of motions during this term and the last term to address poverty for children and for wider society. Just yesterday, the Government advised that it would not be supporting a motion to increase fuel allowance, with Met Éireann advising that a deep cold spell and significant snow will be in Ireland in the coming days. I advise the Government to revisit this position for all of society.

While I welcome the gradual reopening of special schools and wider services for children with disabilities, we have to recognise the particular difficulties that Covid-19 caused for these children and for their families. The regression and the lack of structure and familiar settings for children and the lack of respite for most parents who are full-time family carers will leave a deep and lasting impact. We are where we are now and we must learn from those mistakes. We must make sure that above all, this will be the last lockdown for these children.

I also want to briefly touch on the childcare sector. I recently received another parliamentary question response which told me that 192 early years childcare providers closed their doors for good between March and December 2020. We need to make sure there are no more closures because this will have a big impact on access and affordability for families and children.

See this speech in context