AN OIREACHTAS committee which was due to make recommendations on strengthening children’s rights a year ago has been given a further six months to complete its work.
The committee, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke, is expected to publish an interim report by the end of this month.
This is expected to recommend legislation to allow the use of “soft information” on people considered to be of danger to children, but will side-step the issue of children’s rights.
The extension of time granted to the committee was described as “shocking” by children’s charity Barnardos.
At a conference yesterday, Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews confirmed the Government had granted the committee an extension to complete its work by October 16th.
Mr Andrews said the Government had not made a decision on whether or not to hold a referendum on strengthening children’s rights in the Constitution.
“I have consistently stated that the Government will await the final report of the Oireachtas committee before making any decision in relation to legislation on constitutional amendment,” he said.
Barnardos chairman Fergus Finlay said action needed to be taken quickly to ensure that child protection and children’s rights were given the fullest protection in Irish law.
The committee was set up in November 2007 to agree recommendations for a referendum on child protection and children’s rights. It was initially to have made its final report to the Dáil in March 2008. It issued an interim report in September 2008, and has said a second interim report, on the criminal aspects of its study, will be published after Easter.
Mr Finlay said no explanation had been offered for “yet another delay” in the committee’s work.
There had been numerous scandals in the last year, yet it was “clear to anyone concerned about children’s welfare that we need to take action quickly to ensure that child protection and children’s rights are given the fullest protection in Irish law”.
“The system is clearly broken when even those reports that might shed some light on how our systems can work better to respect and protect children fail to be prioritised by the Government,” Mr Finlay said.
Ms O’Rourke defended the delay. She said Mr Finlay had remarked himself when he appeared before the committee that it was better to have a well-thought-out result than anything rushed. The report on the second leg of its work had been completed and she expected it to be published the first week after Easter.
The children’s rights element of the committee’s work was very complex and would be given close attention. “When we conclude next October, we will have completed three reports in two years – a huge amount of work,” she said.
The committee had worked steadily for two hours every week and had gone on one trip only, to Thurles, to visit a Garda programme there, she said.
“We have had no junkets,” she added.
Mr Andrews was speaking at a wide-ranging seminar organised by the Children’s Rights Alliance, which focused heavily on the need to invest in the lives of children.
Jillian van Turnhout, the alliance’s chief executive, said the Government must set out an investment strategy for children, in light of pressure on the public finances. “Cuts in education and health services that directly affect children will be a false economy. It’s as simple as that,” she said.
“Let me ask you this: which will cost more in the long run, investing or not investing in early-years education? Remember that for each euro spent, a return of up to €7 can be expected. Smart investments in children make the most sense and should come first.”
She said the State could not afford to put the next generation’s future on the “long finger”.
President Mary McAleese was one of more than 100 delegates who signed the alliance’s “pledge wall” which aims to “value children’s rights and pledge to work towards making Ireland one of the best places in the world to be a child”.