No political party is serious about creating a society which puts the rights of children first, the outgoing chief executive of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) has said.
Paul Gilligan, in an interview with The Irish Timesto announce his departure from the charity, said too much of the political focus over the past seven years - the time he has been chief executive - has been on economic progress.
Mr Gilligan leaves his post in June to become chief executive of St Patrick's psychiatric hospital in Dublin.
"Economic growth has been wonderful of course but none of the political parties is talking about increasing taxes to increase investment in children. None is talking about a society which puts children's rights first, regardless of the costs.
"The Scandinavian countries come at the issue from a way we are not even discussing. They asked: 'How do we create a society which values children?' And then looked at what needed to be done to lift all children out of poverty, even if it meant increasing social welfare payments to parents who didn't work, and halving class sizes to tackle educational disadvantage. The question here always is: 'How much will it cost?'," he said.
This was not necessarily a criticism just of politicians, he stressed, saying politicians "respond to the electorate", though he added his belief that if people "really believed raising taxes would be spent on a genuinely equitable society they would agree to increases".
Among his greatest disappointments over the seven years have been the introduction of Asbos (antisocial behaviour orders) and the fact that hitting children is still legal.
He said he regretted the "failure" of the society to convince the public against Asbos.
