An Irish Government delegation has faced some hard questions during the first examination of its compliance with the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva this week.
The inter-departmental delegation was headed by Mr Bernard McDonagh, second secretary of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. It was questioned by the UN committee which monitors the Covenant on Tuesday and yesterday.
Mr McDonagh said the question of incorporating the UN Covenant into Irish law would be discussed by the Oireachtas All-Party Committee on the Constitution in the autumn.
The delegation was asked why at a time when Ireland had one of the world's highest economic growth rates, its level of child poverty was the second-highest in Europe.
The committee praised the Government's national anti-poverty strategy but asked about any concrete signs of its impact two years after it was introduced. Querying how much "poverty proofing" there had been in the last two budgets, committee members suggested that a UN-style "rights framework", with benchmarks to show rates of progress in eradicating poverty, would be a useful government tool.
The delegation also faced, among other things, questions about the health of prisoners, hospital waiting lists, the treatment of the elderly, and alcohol abuse and how much the Government was doing to combat drink advertising aimed at young people.