Greens hit out at childcare provision
Bad practices in planning and development are having a damaging effect on children’s well-being, it was claimed today.
The Green Party said there was a need for well-planned communities which offer a variety of childcare arrangements, access to school by foot and bicycle and quality recreational facilities.
At the launch of the party’s Children’s Policy, Cllr Bronwen Maher said: “Current bad practices in planning and development are having a damaging effect on our children’s well-being.”
She added: “We believe that the state at local authority level must be more involved in providing childcare in community-based centres. Ultimately these community facilities would become children’s centres offering a high quality range of services to parents and carers, including crèche, pre-school, after-school and out-of school care with parent and toddler groups and parenting courses.”
The policy advocates introducing legislation to prohibit the advertising of junk foods to children under 12, implementing 30-minutes of physical activity every day in schools and encouraging school-based mental health interventions.
The party also called for a referendum to amend the Constitution to include specific rights of children and proposed lowering the voting age to 16 to promote representation of young people’s needs among politicians.
Children and young adults were consulted in the drawing-up of the policy and their comments on issues that affect them were used to formulate it.
The party claimed the policy was the first to touch on every aspect of a child’s life, from birth, healthcare, education, play, community and family supports.
Dan Boyle, the party’s spokesman on social and family affairs, said Ireland was one of the most unequal societies in the developed world.
“We are all aware that the recent economic fortunes have not been extended to everyone within our society, and tragically our children and young people are the greatest victims of this inequality,” he said.
“Measures to tackle social disadvantage are an integral part of all sections of this policy. As well as improved childcare facilities, we are proposing a range of measures such as extending medical cards to all under 18’s, including housing as a ‘basic need’ in the National Children’s Strategy, accelerating the provision of social housing and reforming family income support systems.”
Ciaran Cuffe, the party’s spokesman on justice, said it was strongly opposed to the introduction of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs).
“ASBOs will ultimately have a negative impact on the lives of our children and young people, just as they have in the UK,” he said. “With over 170 nationalities now living and working side by side in this country it is vital that we take action to ensure that every child, irrespective of their background, feels valued and respected.”
Mr Cuffe said action should be taken to ensure children seeking asylum were removed from the adult application process.
