Irish Times

THE GOVERNMENT needs to change the way it deals with children’s rights and should guarantee life-long support for people who grow up in State care, a senior HSE director has said.

Philip Garland, assistant national director for children and families at the HSE, also warned that current Government policies towards unaccompanied children who come to the Republic to seek asylum could be “racist”.

“One of the problems is that if you are an Irish child you are protected under the Childcare Act, because when you hit 18 years of age the State continues to look after you. But if you are an African or Chinese child you are sent all around the country by the refugee agency – away from all the support structures and people you know in Dublin,”

He said he wants the State to change the legislation on aftercare so that for children in care who don’t have stable relations the State would become a parent for life. He said it was both about a change in legislation and a change in culture.

Irish Times

More than 500 unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Ireland have gone missing from state care in the past decade, according to new figures released by the HSE.

Between 2000 and 2009 a total of 501 children went missing from care in the HSE. Sixty-seven of them or 13 per cent have been successfully traced.

Of a total of 47 unaccompanied children seeking asylum that went missing from State care in 2009, nine were later successfully traced by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

Irish Times

The number of children taken into care by the Health Service Executive increased by nearly 300 last year and the economic downturn is said to be party responsible.

A report presented to a meeting of the HSE earlier this month shows there were 5,694 children in care at the end of November 2009, up from 5,396 in January 2009 – a 5.5 per cent increase.

The report, prepared by the HSE, says its local health offices have attributed the increase to a number of factors including increased public awareness of child protection and welfare issues mainly through the media, which has resulted in increased reporting of cases; the economic downturn which it says is resulting in additional financial hardship for families and cutbacks to household budgets for childcare; and an increase in babies born to mothers addicted to drugs/alcohol in some areas. It said these babies have been taken straight into care.

Irish Examiner

Employers in the community and voluntary sector are forcing through pay cuts on a par with salary cuts in the public sector, a move unions have branded illegal.

In a letter sent by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to charity Enable Ireland, the HSE says it understands the provisions of recent legislation aimed at reducing the pay of public servants  ”will also apply to staff in those grant-aided agencies that are not specifically included in the legislation”.

This effectively means staff in these agencies will suffer reductions of 5% on the first €30,000 of earnings; 7.5% on the next €40,000 and 10% on the next €50,000.

IMPACT, the largest solely public service union, said community and voluntary groups were contacting them daily to complain that employers was unilaterally imposing pay cuts.

Pobal, one of the main funding agencies for community and voluntary agencies, including community partnerships, is also reducing the pay of its 180 staff nationwide, albeit at a rate 2.5 % lower than the public service rate. A spokesperson said the latest reduction (it agreed a 2.5% pay cut last year) was on foot of a budget cut which would have to be “reflected in administrative costs”.

Irish Examiner

A special health clinic has been opened in Rathkeale by the HSE to cater for the huge influx of Travellers who come from Britain and Europe to spend Christmas and the new year in the Limerick town.

The clinic, which will not open on Christmas Day or New Years Day, is staffed by a GP and a triage nurse and is open from 10am to 8pm.

It is estimated that the arrival of visitors at this time of yesr pushes the population from around 1,800 to almost 4,000. Most of the visitors stay in their own caravans which they park mainly in the Roches Road area of the town.

Irish Times

The government has been accused of  “State-sponsored child abuse” for deporting a mother to Nigeria without her four-year-old son, who has been placed in State care.

The mother, who came to Ireland in 2005 to claim asylum, and her son, were both arrested at Dublin airport on August 16th for evading deportation orders. She was sent to prison  and her son was placed in the care of the Health Service Executive (HSE).

A few days later, an application by the HSE to lift the care order to enable the child to accompany his mother on a deportation flight was refused by the District Court, which ruled that it was not in the best interests of the child.

The garda National Immigration Bureau subsequently deported the mother on September 1st leaving the child in State care.

Because the son was born after the coming into force of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 he does not have the right to Irish citizenship. However the District Court’s decision not to release him from HSE care means he cannot be deported to Nigeria to be reunited with his mother, at least for the time being.

The Nationalist

A new project that aims to help Traveller men to improve their lives and lifestyles is getting underway in South Tipperary.

The two-year programme will focus on areas such as health, training and education in a bid to advance the quality of  life of local Traveller men aged between 18 and late thirties.

The South Tipperary Traveller Men’s Project has received funding from a range of agencies, including Pobal, Fás, the HSE and South Tipperary County Council, in order to establish men’s Traveller groups throughout the country.

Eugene O’Donnell of the Tipperary Rural Traveller Project, who is co-ordinating the new programme, points out that the life expectancy of Traveller men is ten years less than that of men in the settled community.

The organisation is currently undertaking outreach work and is getting groups established, with plans to involve local Traveller men in sports, health, vocational training and educational programmes.

Irish Times

One in five children in care does not have an allocated social worker, according to a damning new report. A review of the adequacy of services for children and families across the State also shows the situation in relation to the percentage without a social worker is deteriorating.

While some 87.3 per cent of children in care in 2007 had an allocated social worker, this dropped back to 80 per cent by the end of 2008. All children in care, under current childcare regulations, should have an allocated social worker. Some 5347 children were in care at the end of last year.

The main reasons children were admitted to care last year were because parents were unable to cope with child neglect, family members were abusing drugs/alcohol, the child has behavioural problems or there was physical abuse.

The report, compiled by the Health Service Executive (HSE) also indicates many children in care do not have a written care plan, again a breach of the regulations. Overall, just 66 per cent of children in care currently have a written care plan, the report says.

Irish Times

More than 27,000 more applications for the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance have been paid by the Health Service Executive so far this year compared with the 2008 payment, according to new figures. The surge of more than 20 per cent in applications for allowance this year is further evidence of the effects of the economic downturn. The HSE, which administers the grants scheme to help families under certain income limits meet the cost of school uniforms and footwear for children returning to school said yesterday 129,860 claims for the allowance had been paid out by it up to October 2nd this year. It also added that a further 17,000 applications still had to be processed.

Irish Times

The Government has been urged to find additional funding for Teen-Line Ireland after it said calls to its helpline had risen by 150 per cent.

The Health Service Executive’s National Office for Suicide Prevention cut the charity’s funding by 12.5 per cent in March. Ireland has the fourth-highest rate of youth suicide in the EU, after Lithuania, Finland and Estonia.

Fine Gael spokesman on juvenile justice, Deputy Joe Carey called on the Government to commit additional funding to Teen-Line. He said the Government needed to do more to stem the rise in youth suicide and continued

In the last month alone, almost a quarter of all suicides in Ireland have been among teenagers….With the post-Celtic Tiger reality, there needs to be a really concerted effort…..