Europe's human rights watchdog has reprimanded Ireland for withholding information on its record in providing social and economic rights to its own citizens.
The Council of Europe's Committee on Social Rights has told the Government it has been in breach of its commitment to provide reports on its implementation of the revised European social charter since March 2004. It has also warned that states that do not respect the reporting obligations may undermine implementation of the charter.
The charter, which Ireland signed and ratified in 2000, commits signatories to provide a certain standard of economic and social rights to citizens.
It has 31 articles covering a range of social and economic areas such as the right to access childcare, health services, affordable housing and the treatment of young offenders.
According to the committee's conclusions for 2005, the Government has failed to provide adequate information on how it is complying with the charter. Ireland's failure to provide the information will be discussed by the committee later this month.
"The absence of a report on a number of the charter provisions meant that the European Committee on Social Rights was unable to make a legal assessment of whether Ireland complies with its obligations under these provisions," Henrik Kristensen, a member of the secretariat of the committee, told The Irish Times.
He said the State had failed to submit an adequate report on how it has changed its legislation to comply with the charter due on March 31st, 2004. It had also not yet supplied the following year's report, due on June 30th, 2005, he added.