Letters

The plight of children in care

Have we learned nothing?

Sat Jul 22 2023 - 00:11

Sir, – I couldn’t agree more with your editorial “The Irish Times view on the plight of children in care: here is one priority for budget day” (July 19th).

Your editorial quotes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar from 2012: “History will record . . . that the Irish people voted today to enshrine children’s rights in our Constitution”.

That is true, but the Irish State has clearly been negligent when it has come to protecting these rights, rights which some of the most vulnerable members of our society – children in State “care”– depend on.

So what if these rights are enshrined if the very citizens they are supposed to protect cannot rely on the State to defend them?

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What use is a list of lofty recognitions, affirmations, protections and endeavours if the State is failing miserably in achieving the aims it has set for itself, aims which were endorsed by the Irish people by popular vote over 10 years ago?

Ireland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The State’s record from its inception regarding caring for children has been abysmal. Have we learned nothing?

We cannot undo the past, but we can offer vulnerable children currently in care a better future.

Based on the utterly harrowing accounts I have read recently, that would not be hard.

We simply must do better.

We are talking about children here.

If we as a society are willing to allow children in State care to be targeted and abused, we should in good conscience remove those articles from our Constitution. We are lying to the very children who they are supposed to protect, and to ourselves.

The safety of vulnerable children should be prioritised above the likes of tax cuts when it comes to budget day. – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – In reference to Carol Coulter’s article “Retired judge’s warning about stark crisis in child welfare comes as no surprise” (News, July 21st), Barnardos understands the significant trauma that children in care have experienced in their lives.

Many have grown up in homes surrounded by poverty, addiction, domestic violence and mental health difficulties which impact adversely on their childhood and all aspects of their development.

In order to recover from this trauma, children and young people need a response from the care system that is stable, predictable and nurturing and which offers a holistic response to meet their needs. We need to start by understanding what has happened to these young people in order to help them heal, to enable them to have positive childhoods and to fulfil their potential. – Yours, etc,

SUZANNE CONNOLLY,

CEO,

Barnardos,

Dublin 8.