A new organisation championing the rights of young people in care was today launched by President Mary McAleese.
The Irish Association of Young People in Care (IAYPIC) aims to give a voice to the 4,510 young people in care in the Republic by promoting their rights as well as providing advice and support.
At a ceremony in Dublin's Croke Park, Mrs Aleese said the association will give children in care "a chance to tell their own stories, know their own rights and have the active support of an organisation in which theirs are the most important voices." She said the organisation represented "child-centredness as its best".
President McAleese said: "Our care system exists to make sure that when family circumstances threaten to overwhelm a child, there is a caring safety net designed to hold that child safe, to steer him or her through the crisis, to guide them on the road to a better future."
"This association wants to make that safety net as strong and effective as possible and it will be much stronger when the lived experiences of children who are in care or who have been in care, as told by themselves, are woven into the fabric of that net."
She paid homage to the Department of Health and Children, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and Barnardos whom she said had brought the IAYPIC to where it is today.
Earlier in the day, Mrs McAleese appointed Ms Emily Logan, the Director of Nursing at the Adelaide & Meath Hospital, as the State's first Ombudsman for Children.
The office will be an independent body responsible for the rights and welfare of children and one that will act on complaints about institutions such as schools and health boards.
