Child poverty 'must cease' by 2016
Thursday January 20 2005
FAMILY breakdown, adult addiction, poverty and abuse are just some of the problems children's charity, Barnardos, aims to tackle in its ambitious plan to make Ireland "the best place in the world to be a child".
The agency announced yesterday it will plough €100m in the next five years into projects aimed at addressing problems that still leave 66,000 children in consistent poverty here.
The plan is part of a strategy to end child poverty and disadvantage by 2016. Barnardos has picked 2016 as the target for its goal as that year is the centenary of the Easter 1916 proclamation promising "all the children of the nation will be cherished equally".
Launching the plan, Barnardos chief, Owen Keenan, said too many Irish children are leading lives "shattered by conditions of abuse, neglect, discrimination, violence, exploitation and homelessness".
He acknowledged child poverty has fallen dramatically in the last 10 years, but said 6pc of children still live in consistent poverty, meaning they often lack warm clothing and are not guaranteed a proper meal daily.
He said: "The challenge is to intervene and break perpetuating cycles - we will not accept that the children of vulnerable parents are automatically consigned to a life of deprivation."
Two of the big problems facing Irish children, he said, were drug and alcohol addiction and family breakdown. He stated: "Relative to our European neighbours, Ireland has consistently very high rates of drug and alcohol addiction amongst our young, but it is the effects of adult addiction on children's wellbeing that features most prominently in Barnardos' work."
He continued: "Nor is it unusual for Barnardos staff to work with an entire group of young children, none of whom is living with their father. We are witnessing much greater degrees of family breakdown and dysfunction, with accompanying relationship and behaviour difficulties."
Mr Keenan told of a child he met in order to show the sort of conditions in which many children live. He said he spoke to the nine-year-old at a Barnardos after-school group just a week before Christmas. "So what do you hope to get for Christmas?, I asked him.
"His answer stunned me, my reaction no doubt betraying my shock. 'A new life', he told me."
He said the child was living in poverty without a father, and his mother had an addiction. His main carer was his grandmother.
Barnardos €100m multi-pronged strategy includes:
* Parent and child centres aimed at improving educational opportunities among disadvantaged children.
* An advocacy campaign highlighting child poverty, child protection, educational disadvantage and alcohol abuse.
* Research into what approaches to the issues work and how they work, so child welfare services can be improved.
Funding for the strategy is to come from statutory and private sources. The main private source will be Atlantic Philanthropies, a major international philanthropic organisation.
The Barnardos strategy was welcomed by Fine Gael spokesman on Social and Family Affairs David Stanton. He described it as a "focused and visionary step in breaking the cycle of childhood deprivation".
Cherish the Children:
- David QuinnSocial Affairs Correspondent
