Rise in complaints to Child Ombudsman

MORE KERRY PARENTS CONTACTING OFFICE THAN PREVIOUSLY

THE agency tasked with defending children’s rights witnessed a worrying rise in complaints from Kerry last year, according to figures released in its annual report this week.

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) logged more than 50 complaints from Kerry last year alone – a period described nationally by the office as ‘exceptionally busy’.

Some 1,639 complaints were made to the OCO in 2015, ranging in subject from concerns over education and health to mental health provisions, bullying and more.

Complaints from Kerry represented three per cent of the 1,639 cases logged and investigated by Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon and his staff.

While the report does not set out the nature of each of the complaints that arose in this county,

The Kerryman understands that concerns raised in Kerry were largely in keeping with national trends in a year in which education services prompted most issues.

In all, 45 per cent of all complaints had to do with the education sector, with family support, care and protection service issues of second most concern for parents nationally (25 per cent of complaints) and health (14 per cent).

Most alarming of all from the report is the clearer picture now emerging of the impact of the recession on the children of the nation.

“The economic crisis that has beset Ireland for much of the period under review has had serious adverse consequences for many thousands of children. Data from March 2015, indicated that some 138,000 children were living in consistent poverty,” Mr Muldoon told the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child this year.

In Kerry over 6,700 children are living in conditions of – or are at risk of – poverty.

Nationally, in March 2015, 1,054 children in 471 families were homeless.

Meanwhile, approximately 1,400 children nationally are spending their formative years living in direct provision centres. Exact figures are not available but roughly 60 of these children are understood to be in Kerry.