As many of you may be aware, FLACs (Free Legal Advice Centres) are currently campaigning to restore child benefit as a universal payment to all children in Ireland. This a very important campaign and one that I am delighted to support. At a time when the rights of children have finally been placed centre-stage in the political debate, it is vital that attention is drawn to this blatant State discrimination against particular groups of children.
Until 1 May 2004, child benefit was a universal payment, paid in respect of every child living in Ireland, no matter what the status of that child’s parents or guardians. This was a progressive measure based not on means or on class, race, gender or creed. Then the Government moved to restrict the payment of this universal benefit based upon the immigration status of the children whom it purports to cherish. But this is not the first regressive step taken in the area of children’s rights taken by the State.
In 2004, the citizenship referendum, which many of us opposed, also restricted the rights of children by distinguishing between them on the basis of their parents, denying children born in this country the automatic right to Irish citizenship which all had previously possessed. The ongoing restriction on universal child benefit represents another encroachment on the rights of children. It also represents an encroachment upon international human rights law principles.
Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the child (1989) provides that:
States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability or other status
and that:
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members.
Article 26 of the Convention further provides that:
States Parties shall recognise for every child the right to benefit from social security, including social insurance, and shall take the necessary measures to achieve the full realization of this right in accordance with their national law.
Yet here we have an example of the State discriminating against certain groups of children in respect of their social security entitlements.
Any referendum on the rights of the child will have to include a provision outlawing invidious discrimination between children, so that this sort of restriction would not be possible in future. As of now, even without any constitutional change, the ongoing encroachment on children’s rights should be ended. Universal child benefit should be restored as a matter of urgency. Unless this is done, the Government’s stated desire to prioritise the rights of children will ring very hollow indeed.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a primary school teacher in the Sheriff Street area of Dublin, a member of the Labour Party, and is currently Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor. His column appears every week in Metro Eireann
