Consultation on the EU Child Guarantee

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Mr. Roderic O’Gorman, T.D., has launched a consultation seeking the public’s views on the recently agreed EU Child Guarantee. The consultation opened on 01 December, 2021 and submissions were accepted, initially, up until 17 December, 2021. On 15 December, in order to ensure the receipt of comprehensive feedback, the closing date for submissions in relation to the Child Guarantee was extended until 14 January, 2022.

The public consultation process provides a valuable opportunity for stakeholders and interested persons who may have an understanding or expertise in child poverty and social exclusion to contribute to the implementation of the EU Child Guarantee.

Read the Press Release here.

Purpose of the Consultation

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is coordinating Ireland’s response across Government to the EU Child Guarantee.

The EU Child Guarantee provides Ireland with an opportunity to re-focus and, where necessary, re-evaluate the approach in tackling child poverty and promoting children’s well-being. The objective of the Guarantee is to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing access for children who are in need of a range of key services and as such forms a subset to the wider issues revolving around child poverty.

The Child Guarantee calls on Member States to guarantee for children in need, free access to early childhood education and care; education (including school-based activities); and healthcare; and to ensure effective access to healthy nutrition, a healthy meal each school day and adequate housing.

As part of the obligations for Ireland under the Child Guarantee, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is currently developing a National Action Plan for the Child Guarantee, in collaboration with a range of Government Departments and an enabling policy framework for the implementation of same.

The effective implementation of the Child Guarantee will involve the active input and participation of all key government departments, agencies and stakeholders. In order to ensure that the Child Guarantee National Action Plan is collaborative, integrated and, ultimately, impactful the views of interested parties are sought to inform the development of the plan and associated implementation actions.

Submissions

The general guidance for responses and associated questions of interest in the call for submissions can be found here.

Written submissions from interested parties are invited and can be returned to: euchildguarantee@equality.gov.ie

The closing date for receipt of submissions is 17 December, 2021 at 5pm.

Please note that submissions received will not be responded to.

Freedom of Information

All submissions received by the Department are subject to release under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 and are also subject to Data Protection legislation.