Key to prioritising children is listening to them

Children’s referendum is a chance to start taking children’s views seriously in Ireland, including in our legal system, writes Aoife Daly

WE HAVE yet to prioritise children’s views in our legal system and the constitutional referendum should provide impetus to change our approach in this regard.

There have been a series of reports on issues relating to the rights and well-being of children — most recently the Shannon/Gibbons report on deaths of children in care or known to the care system — which make for grim reading. A key conclusion of every report was that children were not heard on matters which affected them more than anybody else, and that this contributed to poorer outcomes for children’s safety.