Lack of nutrition strategy criticised

THE CURRENT generation of young people will probably be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents due to the Government’s failure to introduce a promised nutrition policy, a children’s rights NGO has warned.

The Children’s Rights Alliance said the Government first promised the nutrition strategy five years ago but no progress had been made, even though there was a childhood obesity problem.

“This is despite the fact that the number of obese or overweight children in Ireland trebled in the last decade to 300,000. This is serious.

“This generation of children is the first in Ireland whose life expectancy may be shorter than that of their parents because of the high level of childhood obesity,” said Jillian van Turnhout, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, which published a report card on the Government’s implementation of promised policies affecting children.

The Children’s Rights Alliance Report Card 2010 gave the Government a D minus for progress on its commitments to children in the areas of education, health, material wellbeing and safeguarding children.

The 2010 report concludes the Government is failing to implement many of its policies on children due to a lack of money, excessive bureaucracy and sheer laziness.

It also awarded the Government its first ever F grade for failing to implement promised policies on alcohol, primary care and financial support for families.

“It gives us no pleasure to introduce a new F grade – a fail. But the Government has simply forced our hand. The new grade is indicative of the way in which children are the casualties of the recession,” said Ms van Turnhout.

In 2009 the Government was awarded an overall D grade by the Children’s Rights Alliance, but this year’s report card shows 13 of the 29 commitments entered into by the Government are lagging seriously behind. Seven commitments have made progress, while the remaining nine have remained static, says the report card.

Ms van Turnhout said budget cutbacks to child benefit and the primary care sector were major failures. She said the decision to make a 10 per cent cut in child benefit across the board rather than reform the system to direct payments to poorer families that needed them most was “lazy”.

She said she was “gravely concerned” at reductions in the price of alcohol in the budget through changes to excise duties. “Why, when we know alcohol is such a big problem, did the Government make this decision? It beggars belief,” said Ms van Turnhout.

The report outlines some of the immediate actions the Government must take to deliver on its promises. Some of these, such as making available the estimated 40,000 unsold housing units across the country to social housing, may require funding. But almost half of the commitments could be implemented with no new money.

Instead they depend on making different departments work together, reforming processes and practices, monitoring, and accountability in the face of inaction, it says.

Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, who sat on an external assessment panel verifying the report card, said she hoped the Government would re-examine the cuts to child benefit to create a more “just system”. She said child benefit should be given to people who need the money rather than across the board payments.

Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews welcomed the report, which he said was necessary to hold the Government to account. He said the Government had introduced measures in the budget to protect families on social welfare from the cut in child benefit. He also highlighted the €15 million funding he secured in the budget to launch the Ryan report implementation plan.

Education is the only area where the Government does better than last year, scoring a B grade, up from an E last year.

It praises advances in childhood care following the introduction of the free pre-school year.