Funding for children's special care arrangements not in keeping with their rights, says Ombudsman

Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, said he has 'serious concerns' about a lack of multi-annual funding in key areas for children such as disability and mental health. Picture: Gareth Chaney

The use of public funds to provide special care arrangements for children in care or asylum seeker accommodation is not in keeping with basic children’s rights, according to the Ombudsman for Children.

Niall Muldoon has written to the Minister for Finance Jack Chambers and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, to urge both ministers to prioritise children in “a meaningful way” in the 2025 budget being unveiled next week.

He said he has “serious concerns” about a lack of multi-annual funding in key areas for children such as disability and mental health.

He also said: “In the absence of any medium- or longer-term funding strategies for children, the provision of services is ad-hoc, leading to adverse effects on children and their families. 

“My office sees how the increasing use of public funds in the private provision of services is leading to poor outcomes for children and not in keeping with the basic principles of children’s rights. This is especially the case for the provision of special care arrangements for children and young people in care, and the private provision of emergency and asylum seeker accommodation.” 

Mr Muldoon criticised the government for not “allocating sufficient resources to prevention and early intervention measures”.

He added: “It is not acceptable that we continue to allocate significant resources to plug gaps in the system in a short-term way, allowing issues to get worse and storing up problems for further down the line, leading to much greater human, and economic, costs.” 

He also said there is a lack of transparency in budget allocations, which makes it difficult to track long-term investment in children. He added that the State’s capacity to “measure the adequacy, appropriateness, and effectiveness of expenditure” is hampered.

His letter claimed that government departments are “forced to work in silos as the budgetary process and budgetary assessments are not designed with children’s rights in mind”.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

He called for “a ring-fenced budget for children’s mental health services and a specific allocation for health services for children with disabilities.” 

Mr Muldoon concluded that while he knows that not everything can be dealt with in one budget, “it is my duty to point out where children’s rights have been compromised and until a more child-centred approach to budgeting is adopted we will continue to see the same issues affecting children time and time again.” 

He continued: “There are multiple factors that contribute to the failures children are experiencing, but insufficient resources and the processes underpinning the allocation of those resources are among the most significant.”