The Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan has expressed regret that certain groups of children are excluded from her investigatory remit.
Ms Logan told the Oireachtas Investigations, Oversight and Petitions committee that she was seeking a change in legislation to ensure all children had access to an independent complaints mechanism.
“Regrettably, there are certain groups of children who are excluded from our investigatory remit - in particular I refer to children incarcerated in St Patrick’s Prison and separated children in the care of the State,” Ms Logan said.
She said she had engaged directly with those groups and sought their views on the issues of most concern to them, and attempted to bring about improvements in the way the State interacted with the children.
“The two key projects where we have seen results from my Office’s intervention are with the children in prison and separated children seeking asylum. The public bodies in both cases responded positively to my intervention and changes have been introduced,” she said.
“However, I remain dissatisfied that children in St Patrick’s Prison still do not have access to an independent complaints mechanism and I continue to seek a change in my legislation to address this.”
Ms Logan told the committee the annual number of complaints dealt with by her office had risen from 95 in its first year of operation to over 1,200 last year. Another significant increase was anticipated in 2011.
The vast majority of complaints were made by parents and extended family members, she said. “It is our experience that parents are the principal advocates for their children,” she added.
Referring to the upcoming referendum to enshrine children’s rights in the Constitution, due to take place next year, Ms Logan said a dominant feature of her investigations was that they highlighted a lack of awareness about the impact of public administrative decision-making on the lives and rights of children and their families.
“It is important that we send out a clear unambiguous message in the primary legal document in the State. The rules and principles it contains define our cultural values about children and provide direction to decision makers at all levels in public life.”