Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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132. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will outline commitments under Ireland’s National Action Plan for the EU Child Guarantee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36705/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I am happy to report that Ireland's National Action Plan for the EU Child Guarantee was approved by Government on 31 May 2022. The Plan was subsequently submitted to the European Commission and published on both www.gov.ie and ec.europa.eu.

The National Action Plan sets out the responses to barriers identified by Departments, and informed by consultations with stakeholders, in the provision of services to children referred to in the EU Child Guarantee Recommendation.

In 2019, the European Commission announced the creation of an EU Child Guarantee with a view to ensuring that every child in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion has access to the most basic of rights like healthcare and education. The objective of the Child Guarantee is to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing the access of children in need to a set of key services.

Ireland’s National Action Plan details efforts, in accordance with the aims of the Guarantee, to address child poverty and social exclusion in Ireland and, in so doing, highlights key strategies currently in play. The key areas of the Plan refer to actions, objectives, targets and timelines - addressing some of the key barriers identified – in each of the sectors of Education, Early Years, Health, Nutrition and Housing. The successor framework to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the National Framework for Children and Young People, will provide an enabling policy framework for the Action Plan.

The publication of the National Action Plan was an important first step in the implementation of the EU Child Guarantee. My Department is coordinating actions across Government in addition to holding responsibility for the delivery of actions contained in this Plan relating to Early Childhood Education and Care. The delivery of other key actions in the plan will be a matter for the parent Department holding policy and operational responsibility. In this regard, the Departments of Social Protection, Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Education and Health are critical stakeholders.

Identifying the most appropriate and effective structures to pursue the reforms necessary to improve outcomes for our most disadvantaged children and young people is a particular focus of work. In this regard, the new National Framework for Children and Young People, currently under development, and its cross-government and cross-sectoral engagement will inform the implementation of the Child Guarantee National Action Plan. I have recently approved an extension for the publication of that framework to Q1 2023. This will allow time for the hearing before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (scheduled for early next year) and any emergent learning to inform, in a comprehensive manner, the development and finalisation process of the new Framework.