Childrens’ charities call on next government to ‘Quadruple state spend on children’

A coalition of childrens’ charities has launched a campaign calling on the next government to more than quadruple state spending on prevention and early intervention programmes for children.

The ramping up of spending, from €5m to €20m, would bring state spending in early years care and education up from just 0.2% of GDP to the OECD average of 0.8%.

Barnardos CEO Fergus Finlay said the call was conservative. “I think it’s petty cash in the overall scheme of things. I’d be a lot more ambitious and think we should switch 2% of GDP to this sector.”

And he said an investment of just €103m could deliver free primary education for all.

“Out of an overall education budget of €8bn that’s actually peanuts,” he said.

“If we invested €103m in primary education, we’d see, over time, an enormous drop in school leaving rates, it would ensure that more students make it to second-level education, with less being led into gangs or anti-social behaviour.”

He made his comments at a conference in Cork yesterday hosted by Ag Eisteach, a Cork-based charity working in the early intervention sector, to raise awareness of the ‘Hands Up for Children’ campaign.

The campaign calls on election candidates to commit to investing in prevention and early intervention programmes, to increase Tusla’s budget by 10%, and to invest in childhood futures.

Chairperson of the ‘Hands Up for Children’ campaign, Marian Quinn said looking after our children was a policy decision.

“And to date, our Government has chosen not to see our future generation as a core priority,” she said.

Ag Eisteacht CEO, Dr Maeve Hurley said increased state investment in early interventions would have a significant impact on children and family well-being.

The most recent figures show that 12% of Irish children are living in consistent poverty, with up to a fifth of all Irish nine-year-olds experiencing significant emotional and behavioural problems.

Mr Finlay said the lack of investment in this area was setting Ireland up to fail another generation. It costs some €314,000 to provide secure detention for a child for a year, yet the cost of providing effective family supports is just €2,000 per child per year.