Sir, - With reference to the article "Putting Children Last", by Christine Buckley (March 20th), I am appalled to read that £340 million is to be spent on yet another Children's Bill that evades the foremost issue of parenting. Anyone can turn on US chat shows and view Ireland of the future, if this issue is ignored.
Trailed before the viewer is the social dysfunction resulting from bad parenting. Nevertheless the US authorities have taken this important issue to heart, and the parents of children in trouble - or indeed parents in trouble who have children - attend mandatory parenting classes before their children are returned to them, and are monitored and helped in their parenting afterwards.
Earlier intervention in the life of a child is society's only way forward. Parents are good people if given the chance, if shown how to tackle the wonderful but daunting task. None of us parents are perfect, but the majority of us are lucky enough to have fallen to that place in society, where our parents were in the enviable position of being educated enough to show some care and love to their children, and to have had an understanding of social conscience.
The sum of £340 million spent prudently, and in the right area, could reverse the cycle of disturbed, dysfunctional families who, unfortunately, produce the horrors which we are experiencing in Irish society today "joy riding", drug addiction, very young offenders. A Parents' Responsibilities Act, as Christine Buckley suggests, is surely the primary step to be taken when legislating for the children of our nation. Spend the money, but let's get it right, let's put the children first - not last. After all, a society that does not take care of its young is worth nothing at all, even if it has the label of a tiger economy. - Yours, etc,
Upper Kilmacud,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.