‘Opportunity lost’ on children’s rights

The 2015 Children’s Amendment to the Constitution was “an opportunity lost” and a “timid version of reform” in the area of children’s rights, according to the newly appointed special rapporteur on child protection.

Conor O’Mahony said that while Ireland is making progress in the area of children’s rights, it is starting from “a fair way back”, saying the children’s rights referendum outcome was “mostly window-dressing”.

The director of UCC’s Child Care Law Clinic said that while progress is being made, the referendum in 2012 which resulted in Article 42A being inserted into the Constitution in 2015 was a change that has made little real impact “other than being a symbolic gesture”.

“I always felt that the time of the Children Amendment in 2012 was an opportunity lost,” said Mr O’Mahony.

“It was a very timid version of reform. There was a wording from the joint Oireachtas committee in 2010 which was far more ambitious, which had some real substance to it.

It wasn’t perfect but it was pretty good but that got pretty heavily watered down in the final wording that was put to the referendum in 2012. I found myself in the position at the time, after years of advocating for reform on that issue, that I didn’t actually campaign for the 2012 amendment because it was mostly window dressing.

He said the obligation to ascertain the views of children in court proceedings and the relaxation of requirements for the adoption of children in care were “concrete changes” but much of the rest of the wording is “just reflecting previous positions”.

“In truth, we ended up with something that has had minimal impact to date and seems unlikely to have all that much impact in the future other than it being a big symbolic gesture. So, that was a real opportunity lost, unfortunately,” he said.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, he said progress is being made, saying the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 contains a lot of “good stuff” and that the creation of a standalone child and family agency “was the right thing to do”, despite criticisms levelled at Tusla.

“I think they possibly tried to do too much too quickly. There was no real transition period; functions and staff were just transferred from the HSE to the Child and Family Agency, which had to hit the ground running with no time to adjust.

“So, they were trying to do a very difficult job in a time of recession and limited resources, in a time of increasing demand. And, in the middle of that, trying to handle this massive transitional process.

"It put them under a huge amount of pressure from a very early point. But, at the same time, I think the decision to have a separate standalone agency was the right one,” he said.

Mr O’Mahony said that he wished to prioritise the entire spectrum of child protection in Ireland but said that he had three main areas of focus initially - the review of the Child Care Act, examining the voluntary care system in Ireland, and looking at how retrospective cases of abuse are being handled.