Barnardo's unveils 12-year strategy

Children's charity Barnardo's will seek constitutional, legislative and social and education reforms to improve the rights of the child as part of a 12-year strategic plan presented yesterday.

The charity's new advocacy unit has identified priority areas which include: the elimination of child poverty, the extension of the remit of the Ombudsman for Children to cover children in care, unaccompanied minors and children of asylum-seekers and the introduction of mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse cases.

It will also seek the insertion of a clause into the Constitution expressly to give rights to the child.

Barnardo's will also press for investment in education to ensure no child leaves primary school without reading, writing and numeracy skills and that all children can make the transition to second level.

The charity will also call for greater Government investment in recreational facilities for young people. In a statement at the presentation of its annual review for 2004-05, Barnardo's said that, despite unprecedented economic prosperity, poverty in Ireland continued to affect one child in every seven.

Barnardo's chief executive Fergus Finlay said 148,000 children in Ireland still lived in consistent poverty.Indicators of childhood poverty in Ireland were that a child or his or her family were living at 60 per cent below the median income and might not have a winter coat, a decent pair of shoes or one hot meal a day, he said.

Mr Finlay said dental services, speech and language therapy and supports for children with special needs and their families were seriously underdeveloped. "We remain among the worst in Europe in terms of our provision of services for children in their early years," he said.

He said Barnardo's was committed to challenging the social and legislative environment that deprived children of the rights enjoyed by adults under the law.