Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

A total of 15,296 children. I know the Minister has heard that figure a lot today but each one of them is a child that is being failed by this State and the Minister’s Government. Each is a child that cannot reach his or her full potential because of that failure; a child who is living a life where they are uncertain, do not know what is happening and do not know their place in the world, where they face huge challenges integrating, making connections with other people and being seen for their own potential and what they can bring, and the value they bring to their communities. It is not only those children but also their brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents who are being impacted by all of this. Tonight, we see Cara Darmody out in the rain, protesting in order to support not only her two brothers but all children and families who have been left in this awful situation by the Minister’s Government.

The promise of something like early intervention must feel like an impossibility for most of these families. They see their children suffering. They know that were they to get the right supports, their futures would be so much brighter than what they will have now but, because this Government and previous Governments have failed to provide the necessary supports and services, those children are left in a very difficult and precarious situation.

What I am hearing a lot today - something that really frustrates me and must make those families feel invisible - is a Government that is describing a problem and keeps saying, "Yes, we know it is really bad. We know we are letting children down. We must do better." Well, do better. This is not the Minister's first rodeo. She was in office in the previous term. The Tánaiste said today that this is a top priority of his. Fine Gael has been in government since 2011. How many more terms are needed in order to get this right? It is not fair on these children and it is not fair on their families. We hear people continually repeating the accolades we are hearing for Cara Darmody. What she is doing is incredible but no child should be put into that situation where they have to put their own lives at a standstill to fight for things that are her brothers' rights. It is their rights that are not being met and it is the same for children around the country. In my constituency, there are 854 children on the east coast of Wicklow and 1,692 between Kildare and west Wicklow whose rights are not being met. For any Government to come in here and say it is not in a position to meet the law when it comes to these children is completely unacceptable. It is also completely unacceptable for the Government to pretend this is something that has just happened and that it has not been in government for the past 14 years, or the past ten in the case of Fianna Fáil. I ask the Minister to see today’s motion and the sacrifice that Cara and her family, and families across the country, have made and just start getting this right. The solutions have been put forward. The Government knows what they are. Just put the focus on it because I do not want to have this conversation again five years from now.

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