Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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869. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will provide a timescale for Ireland's submission of the State Report to the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27912/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992. Ireland submitted our second progress report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2005/2006.

Following the establishment of my Department in June 2011, I directed that a substantial progress report, combining the 3rd and 4th reports , to cover the period 2006 to 2011 inclusive should be submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

An Inter-Departmental Liaison Group was established to prepare the report and a draft of the report was completed in December 2012. The report was sent to the Childrens Rights Alliance for their observations in December 2012. On foot of this, officials of my Department and the Inter-Departmental Liaison Group met with the Childrens Rights Alliance and it's member organisations on 28 January, 2013. Following this meeting the Childrens Rights Alliance submitted initial observations to my Department on 8 February, followed by further observations on 25 February. These observations have now been considered by my Department. I have recently received the finalised report and I will bring it to Government shortly, in advance of submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The report outlines the most significant developments for children and how Ireland has been implementing the main aims of the UN Convention during the period 2006 to 2011 inclusive.