ORGANISATIONS concerned with child protection have voiced their disappointment and frustration at the slow pace with which the recommendations of the Ryan report are being implemented and have called on the Government to give a commitment to hold a referendum on the rights of the child this year.
Speaking at a press conference supported by eight organisations concerned with child protection, Ellen O’Malley Dunlop of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre said “the most meaningful monument to the survivors who have suffered so much would be to enshrine the rights of children in the Irish Constitution.”
The Minister for Children Barry Andrews said he was “hopeful” there would be a referendum on children’s rights before the end of the year but said it was more important to get the wording right than to have the referendum quickly.
Speaking at the Aislinn Centre in Dublin yesterday where he attended an event marking the first anniversary of the Ryan report, Minister Andrews said such a referendum would have implications for children in education, health care, family law, immigration policy.
“Hopefully it will take place in 2010 but it is more important we get it right that having it straight away,” he said.
At yesterday’s press conference by the eight child protection groups Fergus Finlay of Barnardos said that while “there has been a great deal of policy development” in the past year “there has been not nearly enough implementation. Additional resources have been promised. But precious few of them have found their way to where they are needed.”
Along with Barnados and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the other agencies involved in yesterday’s initiative were Cari, the Children’s Rights Alliance, the ISPCC, the Irish Association of Young People in Care, One in Four, and Rape Crisis Network Ireland.
Mr Finlay said all eight agencies wanted to highlight the “inadequacy of implementation, of structures and of resources so far. But we also want to take this opportunity to once again call for a commitment by Government to hold a referendum on the rights of children this year.”
Jillian van Turnhout of the Children’s Rights Alliance said a draft Bill on making the Children First child protection guidelines statutory law was promised by the end of this year yet there was “no sign that work on this Bill has begun”. And, while the HSE service plan for this year promised 250 social workers for child protection “we are not aware that any new posts have been filled”.
Ms O’Malley Dunlop said that, though a 99-point implementation plan drawn up by the Minister for Children’s Office and published last July was welcomed by all “to date, one year later, hardly any of the recommendations have been implemented.”
Mr Andrews said a further 50 social workers would be employed in child protection services by the end of June,with an additional 75 taken on by the end of the third quarter and the remainder by the end of the year.