Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for facilitating this engagement with the Taoiseach. I warmly welcome the Taoiseach to this House. I will start by acknowledging the very significant and excellent speech he made at the United Nations General Assembly on 22 September. He gave a very passionate speech. He touched on the issues of dignity, equality, solidarity, environmental responsibility and social responsibility. Therefore, I am not surprised that he has made central to his theme here today the issue of child poverty. That is a really important issue. Other people may have expected other issues to be raised but they were not raised.

I keep this little book on my desk beside the Irish Constitution. It is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is done as Gaeilge too. I appeal to the Taoiseach to arrange to have one of these issued to every home in Ireland. Every home should have one of these. I reference this very simple childlike book on the convention that was issued by the Government some years ago on a daily basis in here. It is one of my guiding books that I have on my desk. I again acknowledge and thank the Taoiseach for the significant UN address he gave.

I want to start off on an equal start. Children who are seeking protection in this country, wherever they come from and wherever they belong, need our support to acclimatise and to recover from the trauma associated with their life's journey. We need equal access to childcare, social care and education. Children with special needs waiting for central services can no longer be tolerated. We need equal access to healthcare. Spina bifida and scoliosis are just two issues I could mention. Today I checked with the national treatment purchase fund and in its figures released in July there are 20,000 children waiting over one year for our health services. That simply is not good enough.

I will just touch on agriculture. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The Taoiseach did not reference agriculture today. I know he could not reference everything. Farmers have concerns about the nitrates directive. Farmers have concerns about the zoned land residential tax on active farmland. We have been promised the new rural housing guidelines for three years and every few weeks we are promised a further letter but nothing happens. We need to establish a national forestry authority and get forestry up and running in a way that embraces both the public and the private sector.

Finally, I ask the Taoiseach to look at the Irish Timesof 16 September, 2023. It states that children are arriving hungry and sick, according to the head of education in a part of north County Dublin. Shame on all of us. Shame on the policymakers. Let us do something about it. We need to put children at the centre, not only in talk and words but in policy and resources.