A MAJOR expansion of family support services in the South was announced yesterday as President Mary McAleese opened a regional headquarters for children’s charity Barnardos in Cork.

SOCIAL and Family Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan will attempt to silence his critics today when he invites 30 voluntary and community groups to tell him what they want him to do in the upcoming Budget.

CHILD protection agency Barnardos has defended the 9pm ban on children in pubs.

FILIPINO nurses came out strongly yesterday against the citizenship referendum, saying it would turn their future children into second-class citizens.

THINK of the children and vote No in the citizenship referendum, the Children’s Rights Alliance urged yesterday.

THE Government is continuing to ignore children trapped in poverty or affected by alcohol abuse, a leading children’s charity said yesterday.

To suggest that children in this country suffer the repercussions of dire poverty because society does not care, is something which most reasonable people would dismiss out of hand.

A two-year campaign highlighting problems faced by Irish children has concluded that the Government has failed to limit the effects of poverty on many families.

The impact in the wage packets of the vast majority of workers will be insignificant as a result of the lacklustre Budget delivered by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy two days ago.

Barnados, a leading children’s charity, has said that it fears the upcoming Budget could exacerbate child poverty in Ireland.

THERE are 90,000 children who will remain hungry and uneducated unless immediate action is taken, Barnardos has warned.

A SHOCKING report by children’s charity Barnardos will show tens of thousands of Irish children are still living in poverty.

The children's charity Barnardo's is moving to calm fears expressed by the Adopted People's Association about a State child abuse database.

ALCOHOL advertising is having a “damaging impact” on young people and should be restricted, a children’s group warned yesterday.

CHILDREN’S charity Barnardos has urged political parties to take a pledge to put the welfare of kids before the alcohol industry.

The children's charity, Barnados, is calling on all political parties to make a New Year's pledge to place the interests of young people above publicans.

FIGURES revealing how many children are exploited in the workplace “is only the tip of the iceberg,” welfare groups said yesterday.

Initiatives launched

EXCESSIVE drinking, and legal problems with issuing barring orders, will result in one-in-five women suffering domestic violence this Christmas, women’s groups warned yesterday.

The disclosure that almost 4,000 people who applied for sensitive State jobs working with children were disqualified, because they have criminal convictions, is grounds for alarm rather than complacency.

A major conference on child protection will hear calls this morning for serious examination of the law to prevent sex offenders slipping into this country.

In the course of the last awful fortnight, as we watched television and read newspapers to await with trepidation the fate of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, the only question pondered in this country was whether it could happen here.

UP to two-thirds of teenagers leaving State care end up sleeping on the streets within two years.

ONE in four children are still not

Ireland’s Agency for children, Barnados, has outlined guidelines for parents in relation to child abductions.