Richard Boyd Barrett TD will this evening propose amendments to the Children’s Bill as it goes through its final stages in the dáil. The proposed amendments will call on the Government to put resources in place to make sure this bill is more than aspirational.
The People Before Profit TD welcomed the Bill that aims to protect the rights of all children and shares the aspiration to uphold Children’s Rights but believes these rights must be backed up by adequate resources.
The amendments being proposed would ensure that the Government would be legally obliged to provide the material resources to protect Childrens Rights.
Before you establish rights of children to be cared for and loved you need to have all the resources in place.
The UN Convention on the rights of the child acknowledges all rights including socio-economic rights we should be including socio-economic rights in this important bill. We need the Children’s First recommendations to be implemented. Resources must be in place to investigate and to support children and families where there are deficits detected. Child care teams need to be fully resourced.
There has to be an end to long waiting lists for counselling and assessments, family support workers, home helps, personal assistants, family support workers. If all this is to happen and Childrens rights are to be upheld how does the government propose to honour that commitment when it is planning major cutbacks such as the €700m in cuts expected in Budget 2013 .
The Bill as proposed by the government says. ‘The State recognises and affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, by its laws protect and vindicate those rights.’
Deputy Boyd Barrett will be proposing the deletion of ‘as far as practicable’ as this weakens the commitment to ensure full rights for all children. He will also be being proposing that ‘the right to healthcare services, secure housing, and the right to live free from abuse, neglect and poverty’ be included as the imprescriptible rights of all children as they are outlined in the UN convention.’
In a statement Richard Boyd Barrett said, “It took five years to put this bill together so it is unfortunate that it is now being rammed through without due consideration and a proper committee stage”
“The UN convention on the rights of the child is widely recognised as the best criteria for ensuring Childrens rights are upheld and it includes socio-economic rights so why are we not putting socio-economic rights in this important bill?”
“ This bill has to be more than just words and aspirations and in light of all the cuts people are facing in the next budget it is clear children will also bear the brunt of the austerity policies and this bill does not address that reality”
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said in a statement, “We are reaching tipping point in terms of the vicious attacks being planning imposed on ordinary families in order to bail-out bankers and protect the super-wealthy. Huge numbers of low and middle income workers, the unemployed, pensioners, the elderly, the disabled, pensioners and young people, quite simply cannot take anymore. The property tax and planned budget cuts in social welfare and health will push hundreds of thousands of people over the edge. We intend to spend the coming months out on the ground organising people to unite, resist and protest against this unjust austerity – just as we did with the household charge. We will challenge the cynical divide and rule tactics of this government designed to play different sectors of our society off against one another and arguing for a broad united movement of resistance against austerity and the continuing bail-out of the banks in the run-in towards the budget. Our society and our economy will be crushed unless we stop this austerity juggernaut with a mass movement of people power on the streets. Building such a movement will be our priority over the coming weeks.”
Deputy Boyd Barrett said it was also unacceptable that the Minister for Education would allow Clare or any other Council to engage in this sort of bullying, with money that was not their own but which was given to them by the government specifically to provide grants for third level applicants, who were entitled to them.
Home care for some of the most vulnerable people in society is being cut by Health Minister James Reilly. As well as cutting the hours and home care packages, the government also want to privatise the home help service. Up to now, most home help care has been provided by voluntary, not-for-profit organisations that are funded by the HSE. Now the HSE wants to turn over home care services to multi-national companies such as Comfort Keepers.
In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett TD of the People Before Profit Alliance/ULA has said that public anger and suffering in the face of further planned austerity measures in the forthcoming budget is reaching“tipping point”.
