Minister for Communications Alex White, TD, today (Monday) awarded €540,000 to twenty-nine projects to help 12,000 people develop basic internet skills. The funding will bring to 114,000 the number of ‘non-liners’ – people who don’t use the internet – who have been helped by the BenefIT Programme since it was established in 2008.
This week at Cabinet the Government agreed to proceed with legislation that will exempt local sports clubs from paying commercial rates on the non-profit parts of their building.
Yesterday’s Budget was yet another disappointing example of the Government’s lack of vision and innovation on childcare.
Proposals by the National Economic and Social Forum, which were supported by my party, set out a universal system of early child care, which would cost less than the combination of funds currently dedicated to child care through the early child care supplement and the subvention scheme.
And yet, yesterday the Minister for Finance put more pressure on parents and childcare providers by reducing by almost a quarter the allocation for the National Investment Programme.
That programme provides grants for childcare providers, helping them set up new businesses and maintaining existing ones. Although providers want to maintain the cost of childcare at a manageable level for the average parent, this cut will only heap more pressure on providers and parents.
The Government is reneging on its own promise to stimulating childcare places and jobs in the sector.
It is yet another example of this Government’s lack of ambition and innovation to help the youngest and most vulnerable in our society.
At these pressing economic times, children should never be first to be targeted.
We could be innovative and adopt a child care system that would require less investment while achieving something real and substantial for our children.
We need to bring such thinking to bear on the budget in the coming days. I hope we will do that and discharge our responsibility as a Parliament in doing so.
Concerns raised by the Ombudsman for Children in her Annual Report, over the state’s failure to properly protect vulnerable children and to support families with additional needs, must be heeded and acted on.
The 43 per cent increase in demand for the services of the agency is testament to the high regard in which Ms Logan and her Office are held, but alas, also provides a clear indication that the state, through its various departments and agencies is failing to deliver on the services that children and their families deserve, and to which they are entitled.
The fact that education-related complaints form the bulk of concerns raised, should be of particular concern, but it is hardly surprising given the dismal performance of Fianna Fail in making provision for children with special needs.
Over a quarter of complaints handled referred to health-related matters, such as child protection, access and adequacy of HSE services, and decisions regarding children in care.
We already know that social work teams are considerably under-resourced, and thanks to the HSE staff recruitment embargo, just about every one of them is operating well below full staff complement. Local child protection teams simply don’t have the resources they require to make early interventions, in order to prevent a problem in a family escalating into a crisis.
When you consider the massive backlogs in many areas of the country, the lack of an out-of-hours service, and the lack of specialist residential places for children with challenging behaviour, the scale of the problem is massive.
When Brian Cowen was elected as Taoiseach he told the Dail that the particular responsibility of the Govt was to “represent the interests of our young”. It’s now time for him to act on that worthy sentiment by ensuring that the concerns raised by Emily Logan are addressed and resolved immediately.
More :: Download the Ombudsman for Children’s Annual Report by clicking here (PDF)
