éirígí Tir Chonaill

Child Report a Damning Indictment

29/12/2010

The spokesperson for éirígí in Donegal has said that the report released recently by the office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs entitled “State of the Nations Children, Ireland 2010” is a damning indictment on the political system in Ireland. Claiming that the report highlights that children in Ireland have been systematically let down by a string of administrations, Micheál Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig said that complete reform of the system in this country was the only way to give children a better standard of living.

“This report shows clearly in black and white the result of a long list of successive governments sitting in Lenister House who have consistantly let the children of the Twenty-Six Counties down over many years” the éirígí spokesperson said. “Children are the most vulnerable of all in any society and they must be protected at all costs, for their own good and that of the nation. Many claim that poverty and lack of good education leads to the hardships many children in society face. But when we get down to the bare bones of the matter what leads to children being in poverty in the first place is the capitalist system that has consistantly fed itself off the misery of the poorest in society.

“Every political party that has sat in government in the Twenty-Six Counties has backed up that capitalist system, a system which seen people as no more than another commodity and as with most cases it is the children who have suffered the most. When education costs money and health care costs money, as it does thanks to capitalism, then the poorest and most vulnernable suffer and ultimately the children bare the brunt” he continued.

“The figures in this report for Donegal in particular are shocking. But the system we have has led to the unemployment figures in this county standing at well over 20,000 and the poverty such a lack of employment causes has a massive affect on our children. And now with the IMF insisting that third level education in this country will only be a luxury for the wealthiest then what possible chance do the children of the unemployed have? Such capitalist thinking leads to an endless spiral of poverty through generations with no end in sight. Without a complete dismantling of the current system in the Twenty-Six Counties and a fair and just system introduced which truely does cherish the children of our nation equally, then our children have no future but one of poverty and deprivation unless they are born into wealth. Unless the capitalist ideologies of our governments are replaced with ones of social equality then we are destined to see many more similar reports in the future.”