We, the undersigned, call on Minister for Justice and Equality Alan Shatter and all Oireachtas members to support amending the Courts Bill 2013 to regulate the admission of the counselling notes of the child witness in a sexual violence criminal case.

Children’s groups have demanded widespread changes to the administration and inspection of childcare settings after the Prime Time report raised serious concerns about the level of care being offered to families.

Employers will face up to five years in jail if they fail to seek Garda vetting for an employee who works with children.

MORE than 3,500 crimes against children on average are being reported to gardaí every year, an Irish Examiner investigation shows.

MARIA CORBETT, policy director of Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA), said the figures raised a lot of issues.

NO matter how dire Ireland’s economic situation has become, taking money from children should always be a last resort, five groups representing parents and children insisted yesterday.

THE new Programme for Government has dropped three-quarters of the commitments relating to children contained in an earlier draft, the Children’s Rights Alliance has claimed.

THE Government has defended its human rights record and rejected many of the criticisms in the Council of Europe’s review of human rights here issued in Strasbourg yesterday.

THE legal loophole which allowed ‘Mr A’ to walk free from court despite having sex with a 12-year-old girl is symptomatic of the Government’s inaction on children’s rights, according to the authors of a major new report which will be presented to the UN.

CHILDREN as young as 10 are likely to end up in custody for non-criminal acts if new powers to clamp down on anti-social behaviour are introduced, the Irish Youth Justice Alliance (IYJA) has warned.

Evelyn Ring