FIANNA FÁIL has called on the Government to make a clear commitment to adequately fund child protection services in advance of the children’s rights referendum.
The party’s spokesman on children, Robert Troy TD, said: “We need to hear from the Government that it is prepared to underpin the new rights it is seeking to establish in the Constitution for children with the necessary resources.”
He said: “We cannot have these issues hanging over the important question being put to the Irish people on November 10th.”
Meanwhile, at a conference hosted by NUI Galway in Co Clare, child law expert Dr Geoffrey Shannon said the current text of the Constitution “fails to protect the welfare and interests of children with the degree of clarity, certainty and force deemed necessary in today’s society”.
He added: “In particular, the inability of the State to intervene in defence of a child’s rights in any situation which does not constitute ‘exceptional circumstances’ is a matter of concern.”
Dr Shannon, who is the Government’s special rapporteur on child protection, said: “Essentially what is called for is a child-centred approach. To achieve this it is necessary to positively vest constitutional rights in the child.”
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said yesterday a lot of careful thought and a huge amount of work over the last year had been put into ensuring that the referendum does “put children at the centre, that it will influence decision-making, so that children are protected from physical and sexual abuse and that the State plays a proper role”.
She added: “I want to ensure that people out there understand what this is about, that there is no scaremongering, that there is good-quality information available to everyone and that’s why the Government will be mounting a very strong information campaign to make sure that people understand clearly what we are and we are not doing in this amendment.”
The Alliance of Parents Against the State, whose supporters include former MEP Kathy Sinnott and anti-abortion campaigner Nora Bennis, said the proposed amendment would hand over the right to decide a child’s best interests from the parents to the State.
On its website aps.iethe alliance describes the proposed constitutional change as "an attack on families and children".
“Children will actually have less rights if this insidious legislation passes. Ireland will be giving up the sovereignty of our children to unelected people in the United Nations and European Union.”
