Ireland is no “Republic of opportunity” for tens of thousands of children trapped in poverty, the outgoing chief executive of children’s charity Barnardos has said. The figures for child poverty are “frightening” and “every single statistic masks a child”.
Fergus Finlay, who retires shortly after 13 years at the helm of Barnardos, said he is “angry” at the lack of progress to improve the position of an estimated 138,000 children living in poverty in Ireland.
The annual report discloses that a record high figure of 15,300 children and families, up from 14,163 in 2016, sought help from Barnardos last year
Finlay said he never would have believed, had he been told the day he began work with the charity, Ireland “would one day have thousands of children with no home”. His work for Barnardos started in 2005 in the middle of a boom “that we all thought would never end. Even when it did, and years of recession followed, the number of homeless children was tiny”. It was only when the economy began to grow again, and the future looked bright for many, that “suddenly there was no room for thousands of children”.
The problem is not just homelessness, he stressed. Thousands of children urgently need psychological support and are waiting for speech and language supports essential to their development. Children have been failed by successive governments, by ideology and by society, he said.
A recent report from a Department of Finance strategic advisory group noted that a calculation some years back that 75,000 children would have to be lifted out of consistent poverty had been increased to 95,000.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/ireland-no-republic-of-opportunity-for-children-in-poverty-1.3624676
Fergus Finlay, who retires shortly after 13 years at the helm of Barnardos, said he is “angry” at the lack of progress to improve the position of an estimated 138,000 children living in poverty in Ireland.
The annual report discloses that a record high figure of 15,300 children and families, up from 14,163 in 2016, sought help from Barnardos last year
Finlay said he never would have believed, had he been told the day he began work with the charity, Ireland “would one day have thousands of children with no home”. His work for Barnardos started in 2005 in the middle of a boom “that we all thought would never end. Even when it did, and years of recession followed, the number of homeless children was tiny”. It was only when the economy began to grow again, and the future looked bright for many, that “suddenly there was no room for thousands of children”.
The problem is not just homelessness, he stressed. Thousands of children urgently need psychological support and are waiting for speech and language supports essential to their development. Children have been failed by successive governments, by ideology and by society, he said.
A recent report from a Department of Finance strategic advisory group noted that a calculation some years back that 75,000 children would have to be lifted out of consistent poverty had been increased to 95,000.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/ireland-no-republic-of-opportunity-for-children-in-poverty-1.3624676
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