Minister Fitzgerald launches UNICEF global Report Card in Dublin

Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Children & Youth Affairs has today launched UNICEF’s global ‘Report Card 11’ on child well-being, marking the first time that this global launch has been held in Ireland.

The launch today took place in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham where Minister Fitzgerald will also today host a high-level EU roundtable discussion child well-being. The roundtable is being held in Ireland to mark the current EU Presidency and is being sponsored by the Department of Children and Youth.

UNICEF’s global ‘Report Card 11’ finds that Ireland is the 10th best place in the world to be a child.

Launching the global Report Card Minister Fitzgerald

“I’m delighted to join with UNICEF today in launching this considerable piece of global research. I am also very happy with the finding that Ireland is now recognised as one of the top 10 best places in the world to be a child. I welcome, in particular, the findings relating to Ireland having the highest rate of children exercising daily in the industrialised world significant decline in children smoking and more modest declines in drinking and teenage pregnancies.”

The Minister said that these international finding on smoking drink and teenage pregnancies reinforce the trends highlighted in recent Irish findings published in the ‘State of the Nation’s Children’ Report which was launched by Minister Fitzgerald last month.

However the Minister expressed concern over that Ireland had one of the highest proportions of 15-19 year olds not in education, employment or training – the so-called NEET’s cohort. Minister Fitzgerald said these findings justified the approach she is taking as current President of the EU Council of Youth Ministers in prioritising the contribution of youth work to achieving the goals of Europe 2020 and supporting youth employment initiatives aimed at the NEET’s cohort.

The Minister stated that “there is growing recognition across Europe of the potential of youth work services to contribute to activation measures and to enhance employability for young people, in particular with the those not engaged in education, employment or training. Youth work services already provide a significant level of engagement with this NEET’s cohort and are therefore in a position to provide a value-added not readily-available to other activation programmes through offering outreach and support services to young people and through providing bridging programmes focused on developing skill-sets and job-readiness.”

The Minister stated that “in providing international comparisons this report further contributes to the wealth of data now emerging on children lives and experiences.

The Minister added “I’m glad to see that this report underlines the importance of early intervention to child well-being. This is a key objective of my Department and features in our work in developing Ireland first-ever Early Year Strategy, our investment in area-based approaches to early intervention and child poverty; and the ongoing development of the new Child and Family Support Agency.

“I congratulate UNICEF on allowing young people’s voices to be centre stage when it comes to matters which affect their lives.”

At the subsequent high-level roundtable, Minister Fitzgerald is being joined by Lieve Fransen, Director of Europe 2020, Social Policies at the European Commission; Jana Hainsworth, Eurochild Secretary General; Christopher Whelan, Emeritus Professor, UCD School of Sociology and Gordon Alexander, Director UNICEF Office of Research in Florence. UNICEF Ireland’s Executive Director, Peter Power will chair the discussion.