State policy on child welfare is "dominated by reactive fire-fighting" and has been "relegated to the fringes within Departments", according to a Fine Gael report on children's rights published yesterday.
Entitled "R" is For Rights, the document calls for an end to the "highly segmented" approach which currently operates whereby responsibility for child welfare is "scattered" among at least seven Departments.
The report's author, the Fine Gael spokesman on education, Mr Richard Bruton, said integrated action across the various Departments was rare and frequently joint action was frustrated by conflicting priorities or turf wars.
"The segmentation of responsibility has encouraged an approach where individual problems are looked at in isolation. The same children may be cropping up on every programme but none offers the level of input that might prevent drift into the margins."
In addition, he said, this segmented approach resulted in children's issues becoming isolated from mainstream policy concerns. "As a consequence, they are starved of resources, are not given the necessary policy direction to develop effective strategies, and are seldom subjected to serious monitoring or evaluation."
He said he had an open mind on whether child welfare should occupy a full ministerial portfolio. As a first step, he said, a focused strategic management initiative should be established under which senior Department officials would come together to monitor policy.
The report says measures aimed at reducing the marginalisation of children have been far from successful with 1,250 children homeless in Dublin alone, 90,000 children living in poverty and 4,000 cases of physical or sexual abuse against children each year.
Education demanded particular attention, it says, with 64,000 children with serious literacy problems, over 3,000 children leaving school each year with no qualifications and 33,000 children with special education needs.
Mr Bruton said targets should be set to eliminate child poverty, illiteracy and youth smoking, among other problems, by 2010. "We need to set clear public policy goals for the well-being of children and develop programmes to pursue them."
One policy area which has been neglected is the promotion and support of responsible parenthood. "In particular, the State must actively promote policies that help parents balance the responsibilities of a family with the responsibility of work."
