Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

To insert the following paragraph after “calls on the Government to:”

“- actively pursue the implementation of the recommendations contained in the Ombudsman for Children’s Annual Report 2019, as well as those of the Children’s Rights Alliance Report Card 2021, and to lay a report before Seanad Éireann on such implementation no later than 1st October, 2021;”

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also thank the Fine Gael Members, led by Senator Seery Kearney, for using their time for this Private Members' business. It is a really important focus. One of the great things about Private Members' business is that it gives us an opportunity to make public comment.

The practice here in recent times has been that very few Private Members' amendments by the Opposition have been accepted, which is a disappointment. I want to focus on that for one second. It is a disappointment in a democracy and in a parliament. The Minister will remember and be aware of his colleagues who sat in opposition for a few years and were blocked out. It is not good for democracy for the Government to say in a blanket manner that it is not supporting amendments before it has even seen them or heard the debate.

We know that the Government is not going to accept the amendments today, which is disappointing when we have not even spoken. It really is disappointing. The reason and rationale behind that, of course, is that the Cabinet did not meet and, therefore, cannot approve them. I must accept that. I have no choice but to accept it. If I were Minister with responsibility for youth affairs, however, I would find it very difficult not to accept some very key recommendations.

I wish to start by strongly thanking the Ombudsman for Children's office and the Children's Rights Alliance, two amazing organisations that have a track record and publish annual reports, which I will quote to the Minister in a few minutes. I could not really argue with them. I am not the expert on children. We were all children once and we must listen.

What message, therefore, are we sending out to the children's ombudsman today? I notified both offices today about these amendments. I notified a number of stakeholders in this area who are advocates of childcare. I told them to watch what is going to happen today. People have been coming into our audiovisual room, talking to politicians and Ministers, bringing wonderful reports about recommendations on the safe protection of our children and supporting LGBT youth and people with difficulties, which is in this book I will mention in a minute. It is very disconcerting and disappointing.

I fully acknowledge the Minister's track record, however. I am not questioning him or his commitment in this area. He is part of a bigger team and he must play his part on that team. I fully respect that and wish to say so before I start.

First, I thank the ombudsman's office. I formally move amendment No. 1 and I will speak to amendments Nos. 2, 3 and 4. Basically, I believe the ombudsman's report has done an amazing thing. Our amendments seek two simple things. We ask that the Bill addresses the urgent matter of the waiting list of more than 2,500 people for child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. The Minister will be aware of the work done by former Senator Joan Freeman on CAMHS and mental health services.

I looked back on Commencement matters with regard to members of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil who spoke about the difficulties of mental health services in recent months. I spoke to many of them and shared their concerns. We must, therefore, be consistent about our messages and our role as advocates in terms of mental health for our young people. That is an important point. I ask people to look back on the record of this House with regard to where they stood then and where they will stand later today. That is really important. We also need to address other issue such as poverty, etc.

I am going to go straight to the report because it really deals with and highlights a few issues. Roughly, we are talking about the right to education, educational disadvantage, religious diversity in our schools and the challenges around it, and disability and additional needs for our young people, particularly in education. The Children's Rights Alliance outlines the difficulties and sets out its concerns.

We then move on to the rights of adequate standards of living for children and young people, and family homelessness. We speak about parental leave and income supports to sustain and safeguard our young people.Challenges are set out in this report card. We talk about the right to healthcare including primary healthcare and mental healthcare, and the importance of physical and mental health. These organisations are making a call on the Government and I do not know what has gone wrong in the messaging here. Reference is made to the right to family, environment and alternative care. What we call "family" is very different for different people. The concept of family is broad, wide and inclusive, as it should be and we need to be there to support all of that. Also important is the right to early childhood supports and assessments.

Covid has taught me that while there are lots of shortcomings with regard to the way we deal with older people, there are lots of young people, aged 14 to 17, who have nowhere to go. There are no basketball courts, no multi-use games areas for them; there is nothing. Sadly, some of them are involved in drinking and anti-social behaviour. They are the ones, according to my local superintendent, who are the most challenging in the context of anti-social behaviour in our communities. They feel forgotten and isolated and are bordering on confrontational towards the establishment because they feel they are not being supported or listened to and that is a valid concern for them.

The right to equality is so important. What about our Traveller and Roma children and youth? What are we doing for them? There are particular challenges there and two organisations in particular are well represented. What about our refugees and asylum-seeking young people who are trapped in all of that, and the places they have to call home? What about LGBTI+ children and young people who are struggling to be accepted and supported in their schools, communities and dare I say it, their families.

The amendments we have put forward are reasonable. I accept what the Minister said about Cabinet proposals but I do not think we can park these issues for too long. We should support young people. We must find a vehicle for dealing with these issues comprehensively. We must support young people and put the necessary legislation in place. I genuinely thank Fine Gael Senators for enabling us to have this debate, which is positive. Sometimes we can get frustrated and I, for one, am particularly prone to getting frustrated but I did not want to do that today. I came in here today and said to myself that I would not get angry because anger gets us nowhere. I ask Senators to keep the issues I have raised today at the top of our political agenda.