As the Government draws up its spending estimates for 2007 and prepares for a general election, it should pay particular attention to the needs of those families in crisis, whose children are in danger of being taken into care.
Funding is required to develop support services, particularly in the Dublin region. And there is a need for early intervention by official agencies in order to prevent marital breakdown and promote family stability.
The worsening situation, involving young children in State care, has been evident for some time. In spite of economic development and rising incomes, a growing number of families have been unable to cope with their housing and financial problems. In addition, educational disadvantage, social exclusion, single parentage, addiction and neglect have all contributed to more than 5,000 children being taken into the care of the State.
A coalition of 80 lobby groups, the Children's Rights Alliance, has emphasised the extent to which families are continuing to experience serious difficulties, such as poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental illness. And they were particularly critical of the disparity in the quality of services being provided to families at risk in the Dublin region and elsewhere. The placement of children in care will be raised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in Geneva, next month because of the Government's responsibility to assist parents in their child-rearing responsibilities.
We have a problem. Young people are being condemned to lives of vulnerability and unrealised potential because of the profound effects caused by being separated from their families and placed in care. And while there will always be a need for some children to be lodged in a secure environment, it is possible to minimise such detentions by addressing issues of neglect and the inability of parents to cope through early social intervention mechanisms. Last March, an official survey found that those regions with the highest number of children in care had the lowest level of family support services.
If the Government is serious about addressing these problems it will have to concentrate its efforts on the provision of early intervention and family support services and the establishment of agreed, country-wide structures. Waiting lists for children's therapeutic services are far too long. And there appears to be no coherent administrative vision of what is required. At the moment, the bulk of increased funding is being directed towards late-intervention crisis management, involving institutional care. That must change to give children at risk the chance of leading satisfying and productive lives.