O'Rourke repeats her call for referendum on children's rights

FIANNA FÁIL backbencher Mary O’Rourke repeated her call for an early referendum on children’s rights.

Ms O’Rourke, who chaired the Oireachtas committee on the issue, said its report had been issued last February.

“I know things move slowly. I know about festina lente and all that,” she added.

“However, the way we are proceeding we are carrying on to the last vowel of festina lente.” Ms O’Rourke said she hoped Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews “will be able to gather everything together” and, having done so, produce the Cabinet’s response to the committee’s work.

“That done, the matter will be open for all of us, but we do not want to keep remaking the wheel,” she added. “That is how I see the difficulty.”

Governments, she said, “sometimes move in such a fashion, hoping things will go off the boil and somehow people will no longer be interested in a topic”. Ms O’Rourke was speaking during the resumed debate on the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2009.

She said she wholeheartedly commended the early school year young children now enjoyed before they enrolled in primary school. “I believe it was born out of financial stringency, but the result has been wonderful for children,” she added.

“It is a delight for their parents, as well as themselves, that they have the opportunity of professional care in that very precious first year before they enter primary education.”

Mary Upton (Labour) said the Bill put the granting of special care orders by the High Court on a statutory footing and that was to be welcomed.

She said the issue of childcare had been brought to the fore last year with the release of the Ryan report.

“The catalogue of failures by the State detailed in the report left an indelible mark on our collective consciousness,” said Ms Upton.

“Surely such failure must never be allowed to happen again.”

Margaret Conlon (FF) said State care could be traumatic for children. “Their time spent in care should ensure that when they leave and return back to the big bad world, they are in a better place than when they left it and entered State care,” she added.