Sir, - It is almost a year since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. At that time it was lauded as the cornerstone on which to build a new future for all our children. Those committed to improving children's lives were encouraged by pronouncements from the politicians and we looked forward to a new era in which our children would be centre-stage in the political dispensation.
In September last year, 10 leading children's organisations wrote to local and national papers detailing the necessity of appointing a Minister for Children and Young People in Northern Ireland to give real effect to the promises of building a better future for children. When the 10 government departments were announced last December, it was with concern that we noted that the golden opportunity to invest in our future had been missed. We had dedicated departments to watch over the future of trees and animals, but no minister with responsibility for that most precious resource, our children.
Children's lives do not fit into neat compartments. The number and location of houses and hospitals, where we build our roads, public transport all affect children's lives. It is essential that when those decisions are taken on these issues full consideration be given to those effects.
Seamus Mallon, in a recent article, wrote: "Stormont, once the preserve of the privileged and the influential, must become a place where those in society who have no special profile or advantage have a voice." The reality is that children, the most vulnerable members of our society, do not have a vote and therefore sadly do not have that political voice.
As we progress towards March 10th and the transfer of powers to the Assembly, the absence of clear indications as to how this important area of responsibility will be addressed gives increasing cause for concern. Having failed to afford children the protection of a Minister for Children, those so empowered should declare their intention to appoint a Junior Minister for Children and Young People, sitting across departments, as the voice of children and young people in the administration. It is our belief that such a move would command broad cross-party support.
Last May 71 per cent of the electorate voted for a better future for our children. Children's rights' organisations are now calling for the delivery of that future. This letter has the support of 28 leading voluntary organisations. - Yours, etc., Paula Rodgers and Paddy Kelly,
Save the Children, Children's Law Centre, Richard Park, Belfast 10.