Campaign to end child institutions is coming home

AS I leave the European Parliament next month, there is one campaign I cannot walk away from. Instead I have decided to bring it home and I am appealing for people who will be willing to join me in carrying it on in Ireland.

The campaign is to end the institutionalisation of children (most commonly children with special needs and those from disadvantaged or minority backgrounds). It met with controversy in the European Parliament as the Bulgarian government and most Bulgarian MEPs vigorously opposed it.

Their counter-campaign within the political groups meant that few MEPs were willing to join or even sign the two written declarations calling for deinstitutionalisation. Irish families and charities which have been involved with orphanages in Romania, Belarus and other former Soviet states are already familiar with the issue.