I understand that the problem of children begging is mainly concentrated in the Eastern Health Board region, primarily in Dublin.The majority of the children begging in Dublin city centre are members of the travelling community who reside at halting sites located around the city. The number of children involved is relatively small and they come from a small number of families who are well known to the authorities.
Under existing legislation, parents who allow their children to beg can be fined or imprisoned. In practice, the Garda has experienced difficulty in trying to enforce the current law, particularly because of the need to prove that the parent sent the child out to beg. Following an examination of the current legislation, the Government decided to update and strengthen the law in this regard, and the Children Bill, 1996, includes updated provisions which will give greater protection to children from being sent out to beg by their parents. The main change is to place the evidential burden on the appropriate adult, usually a parent, to show that he or she did not send the child out to beg.
In the Department of Education work is ongoing on the preparation of legislation to update the provisions relating to school attendance at first and second level. Monitoring of school attendance will form part of the proposed legislation and will be applicable to all children, including children of the travelling community.
As far as the statutory agencies under the aegis of the Department of Health are concerned, the Deputy will be aware that the Child Care Act, 1991, enables health boards to take action through the courts where there is evidence that children are being abused or neglected. However, these provisions must be read in conjunction with section 3 of the Act which obliges health boards to have regard to the principle that it is generally in the best interests of a child to be brought up in his own family.
In general, the response of the Eastern Health Board has been to work with the travelling community and relevant voluntary groups rather than adopting a confrontational approach. The board, in conjunction with the Department of Education, supports a pre-school and school for approximately 65 traveller children in the city centre. Children are collected each day and brought to the school where meals, health care and other back-up services are available.
The board also supports a family support service for the travelling community at Exchange House in Meath Street. The service includes a drop-in facility and an outreach service is provided by a social worker who works with the most vulnerable families and their children. In addition, the board provides financial assistance to the Travelling Family Care voluntary agency towards the operating costs of two residential centres for children from the travelling community.The agency has also established a shared rearing project whereby traveller families can foster traveller children requiring care.
A review of the existing services for travellers was recently commissioned by the Eastern Health Board and this report will be available shortly. This is a further example of the necessity of adopting a focused, co-ordinated approach and I stress that all three Departments in which I have responsibility are involved in addressing this issue.
