THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
On September 28, 1992, Ireland ratified the UN Convention On The Rights Of The Child which, then just four years in existence, outlined the responsibilities of governments to protect and promote children’s rights through their laws, policies and practice. Ireland’s Child Care Act 1991 was in its infancy and was supposed to transform the powers of health boards to intervene on behalf of children at risk of abuse and/or neglect.
In the intervening decades numerous reports have outlined our shameful failure to challenge cultural and societal norms that too often have left children to fend for themselves against what most of us would be incapable of coping with.
Now, here we are, a quarter of a century later and the fall-out of South Kerry CAMHS is still in free-fall; the Government roll-back on cutting SNA numbers has yet to offer any sort of forward thinking; school places for children with special needs are abysmally not enough – one mother of my knowledge was turned down by 14 schools for a place for her son (4) who has autism.
According to Social Justice Ireland there are 131,764 of our young with special needs, one in 10 of our children.
Additionally, more than 5,300 children, of more than 17,000 homeless people, have no place to call home; unattended immigrant minors have gone missing; bodies of little boys unaccounted for years are dug up in Co. Louth, and Tulsa keeps pointing the finger at everyone else when a child in their care goes missing. And to add insult to injury planning permission has been granted to build apartments at Bessborough, Co. Cork where 900 babies were interred in the decades of Mother & Baby Homes – years of no closure, despite the Taoiseach’s apology the other day,
An Oireachtas health committee heard last week that “one clear entry point for children with mental health needs will be rolled out this summer” in a bid to ensure they are referred to the right support and not automatically sent to CAMHS. Another promise. Meantime, the Ombudsman for Children has criticised reforms around the Assessment of Need (AON) process as “tinkering around the edges” despite almost 20,000 children currently waiting for an assessment. Dr Niall Muldoon said it seemed to him that it was “an attempt to spend less resources in this area”.
Moral responsibility is a great buzzword these days, meaning, I guess, that we should know right from wrong, and act accordingly, but there is still so much wrong about how we are treating our children on the ‘fringes’ of Ireland’s society.
As I write, those 5,300 children are still homeless, 10% of all our children live below the poverty line, while many young get their schooling in the 1,600 unsuitable prefab buildings throughout the country and the cost of childcare continues to escalate.
I don’t see any joined-up thinking in Government and other agencies when it comes to the housing crisis, the health crisis, the day-in, day-out debilitating struggle of so many.
I don’t see any moral responsibility. The philosopher George Santayana said: “Those who do not learn [from] history are doomed to repeat it.” Here, history lives on with the absence of a willingness to finally, once and for all, help put things right. God knows, but the money is there, and, given our small population, the needed infrastructure not beyond realisation.
Surely, if we really hold children in the high regard we claim to, we should seek to ensure that society treats all children equally from birth. However, what we need to realise is that only real investment will alleviate the pain and suffering of these children.
Since the foundation of the State we have had a steady stream of conservative politicians implementing a liberal welfare State dominated by subsidiarity, means-tested assistance, and restricted social access.
History tells us that whatever party is in power and whatever the financial state of the country, we have never sought to build an equitable society where children can truly be treated equally. If we are ever to achieve such a society we need to realise that there is a direct connection between the ideologies of the politicians we elect and the society we live in – and the advantages or disadvantages that the children it produces experience.
If we truly wish to cherish our children, the type of society we so sorely need is one based on equality and fairness; a society that prioritises people over money …
