I will not introduce my colleagues, as the Chairman has already done so. I thank the committee for giving the representatives of Barnardos this opportunity to express our views on the vital issues it is discussing. As we recognise the complexity of the important task the committee is undertaking, we wish it well in its work. We have already made a submission to it. We will be happy to answer any questions members may wish to ask.
Last year Barnardos worked with 5,000 children and families in 42 centres. It works with children and families who have been battered by life and for whom the idea of the "best start" is often a distant one. I refer to children who may not make it without additional support. Our work involves helping them to develop the skills and confidence they need to get the most from the education system. It involves supporting families as they try to do the best they can, day in, day out. While such work is sometimes painstaking, it is often rewarding. In addition to the work we do in our projects, we offer extensive support and service to children who have been bereaved and families involved in adoption. We are involved on a daily basis, through our guardian ad litem service, the largest in the country, in helping the courts to determine where the best interests of specific children in difficult situations lie.
Barnardos has developed a number of convictions on the basis of its practical and theoretical work. We strongly believe childhood works best when families work well. The best place in which a child can develop is at the heart of a nurturing and caring family. For such purposes, we define a family as any combination of children and parents or parent where there is love and mutual support. Therefore, the best possible way for the State to recognise and nurture childhood is to support families.
Many of the families with which we work are beset by the problems poverty brings in its wake. We work daily with people who struggle with drugs, alcohol and domestic violence — people who have been overburdened by the circumstances of their lives. The development of children often suffers when their parents love them but lack the skills and capacity to translate that love into effective parenting. For that reason, the capacity to intervene early and seek to prevent things from going wrong is one of the most critical supports Barnardos offers. It is a tragedy and a scandal that the State spends millions of euro every year on picking up the pieces of broken lives and broken families but spends little on prevention and early intervention. A school principal in Dublin recently told me that when he looked at the new cohort of six year olds entering his school each year, he could almost tell at a glance which of them were bound for Mountjoy Prison. He added that it was almost too late to do anything about it by then, even if the resources were available.
If I thought it was within the remit of this committee, I would be urging it to frame a referendum to put a model of family support based on principles of prevention and early intervention into the Constitution. The growing crisis in this area is all the more tragic because it is unnecessary. One of the great ironies of investing in prevention and early intervention is that it yields dramatic savings for the Exchequer over time. The Nobel Prize-winning economist, Professor Jim Heckman, who now does some of his work in Dublin has estimated that every $1 spent on good quality early childhood development can yield up to $17 in savings. These savings come from better educational attainment, less involvement in gangs and juvenile trouble, less social welfare dependence, greater likelihood of being a taxpayer, less family separation and greatly reduced expenditure on prisons.
I would like to speak about the principle of putting a reference to children into the Constitution before I consider the express terms of reference of the committee. Having campaigned for such a provision for a number of years, we welcomed the Taoiseach's initial statement that it was under consideration. The subject should be approached without fear. We urge that all legislation relating to and arising from the amendment should be published, at least in draft form, before the people are asked to vote in the referendum. That would generate as much certainty as possible about the long-term intentions of the Government and the Oireachtas. Some will argue that any measure that enhances the rights of children will, in some sense, diminish the rights of families. We work with people all the time whose only wish in life is to see the right of their children to a decent future vindicated. I have yet to meet a mother or father who believes his or her rights should take precedence over the rights and needs of his or her children. The work of this committee is about both rights and needs. In urging members to adopt a provision which recognises the natural and imprescriptible rights of children, a provision to which we know they are already committed, we urge them also to recognise childhood as a unique time that needs to be safeguarded, both for the good of individual children and the benefit of society.
Barnardos believes four general principles should inform the work of the joint committee and be included in the proposed amendment to the Constitution as follows: the principle of ensuring a child's voice is heard; the principle of the best interests of the child being of paramount importance; the right to non-discrimination; and the principle that each child should be entitled to support to achieve his or her developmental potential. Every organisation representing children which appears before the committee will share our view on this issue.
One of the rights children should have is the right to be cared for by their parents. Rather than this being expressed as an obligation on parents, it would be better expressed as a right which resided with the child. This means that where a child needs it, the right to be cared for should be extended to include the right of the child to the intervention of the State and-or provision of alternative care when care breaks down within the family. In the Constitution the bar is set too high to enable effective intervention in time. However, we would never wish circumstances to arise in which the Constitution was used to ride roughshod over families. Hence, Barnardos supports the principle of proportionality. However, the protection afforded to children and the need to put the best interests of the child first must be strengthened.
As we have stated, children need to grow up in a safe and stable environment if they are to achieve their full developmental potential. While the rights of children and the best interests of the child are usually achieved within the family, children who require it should be entitled to have their welfare protected through the provision of alternative care such as fostering and adoption. I do not wish to recite the law in this matter, as members know it better than I do.
In the case of children in long-term foster care where both foster parents and child want an adoption, it is often necessary to wait until the child is nearly 18 years, as otherwise it may be possible for birth parents to resume parental duties. The effect on the child is that he or she is effectively denied alternative family stability which would benefit him or her most at a time when he or she most needs it. Provision should be made by law and in the Constitution for the voluntary placement for adoption and adoption of any child and that in all such circumstances the determining factor should be the best interests of the child. Barnardos strongly advocates that the voice of the child should be heard on any matter that affects the child in any proceedings involving the child and that the State should give the child's views due weight according to age and maturity.
On the issue of so-called soft information, Barnardos strongly believes in the simple proposition that if one wants to be an engineer or doctor, one must be appropriately qualified. If one wants to work with children, one must accept as a basic qualification for the job that one can be trusted with the safety and protection of children. This means that one must be prepared to submit oneself to appropriate vetting. In turn, this means that the current vetting system must be extended to include relevant matters such as cautions and serious allegations, rather than dealing solely with convictions, as another vital step towards protecting children from those who would seek to harm them. In saying this, Barnardos does not wish to be considered in any sense critical of the vetting procedure in place. The vetting unit does a fantastic job and we have direct experience of it.
