Children’s groups critical of Government failings

Government failures to protect children’s health, welfare and rights are still rife despite commitments to do better in all areas, the national coalition of children’s organisations has warned.

The Children’s Rights Alliance’s first annual ‘report card’ on the Fine Gael-Labour administration is expected to say the Coalition’s performance is an improvement on its predecessor but that it still has a long way to go to deliver on the promises made in the Programme for Government.

In particular the ‘Is The Government Keeping Its Promises to Children’ report raises serious concerns about the detention of children in prison 10 years after legislation ruled the practice unacceptable. Giving the Government an ‘F’ grade on the subject, the Alliance warns that the continued detention of boys of 16 and 17 in the Victorian-era St Patrick’s Institution on the Mountjoy campus breached domestic and international human rights law.