The Government has been criticised for failing to keep its promise to improve mental health services for children.
The Children's Rights Alliance has published its graded assessment of Programme for Government commitments in its annual report card.
The Government received less than favourable results in a number of areas central to children's lives including mental health, ending Direct Provision and family homelessness.
It is the fourth year that the Government has received an 'E' grade over the continued admission of children to adult psychiatric units, something it had committed to end.
The Children's Rights Alliance said while the number of children admitted to adult psychiatric units reduced significantly last year to just five, it described the number on waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services since 2020 (up by over 1,000) as unacceptable.
The CRA welcomed progression of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill, but warned the legislation in its current form would place the practice of admitting children to adult units on a statutory footing, which it said was "a serious cause for concern".
The Governments' performance on ending Direct Provision saw the sharpest decline over the lifetime of the last Government (from a 'C+’ to an ‘E’).
The decline was due to a lack of adherence to governance and reporting mechanisms which resulted in serious child protection cases being brought into light.
The CRA also pointed out that in two consecutive budgets, the Government failed to implement the International Protection Child Payment that would have provided some relief to children and families living in difficult conditions.
The Government received a 'D-' for family homelessness.
The CRA acknowledged there was an improvement in the number of families prevented from entering homeless services, (2,262 families - 56% of those presenting) and an increase in the number of families leaving emergency accommodation to tenancies.
However, it said child homelessness had reached "staggering" levels with more than 4,500 children in emergency accommodation.
At the other end of the scale, the government was awarded an ‘A’ grade and four ‘B’ grades for positive progress.
The effort to address one of the biggest costs in education through free school books received 'A+'.
The continuation of Core Funding amounting to €400 million in year four of Early Childhood Education and Care, and an overall investment in the sector at over €1 billion secured a B+.
Improvement towards tackling food poverty also saw grades in this area increase from a 'D' in 2021 to B in 2024, while child safety online received a B-, which was a drop from 'A' last year due to what the CRA described as a lack of timely, effective, and robust protection of children rights in the online environment.
It described the Online Safety Code as "disappointingly weak" for giving online platforms "far too much scope and discretion to design their own rules, leaving vulnerable children exposed to harmful and illegal content."
