Children’s rights must “obviously now be a guarantee”, President Michael D Higgins said at a conference sponsored by children’s charity Barnardo’s. He added that if Ireland were to build children’s rights into a version of a real republic, there needed to be a change”not only in the Constitution, not only in the legislation, not only in administration, but also in public consciousness in our priorities.”

He told the conference, entitled Children at the Centre: The Future of Child Welfare and Protection in Ireland that the promise of the 1916 Proclamation to ‘cherish of all the children of the nation equally’ is not being realised.

He said: “Protecting children must be the first and most important guarantee for the future. The State has a duty to do all it can to ensure that the abuse and neglect that children suffered in the past does not happen in the future and where if it does, to respond appropriately and decisively and in the interest of the child above all else.”

He added that Irish sociey must also allow for the freedom of the child while also recognising variations in strength and vulnerability.

He welcomed the Government’s decision to create a dedicated senior Ministry for Children and Youth Affairs as encouraging and very much in line with the aspirations contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Meanwhile, President Higgins has also acknowledged that people and communities of faith can make a profound contribution under the inspiration of their personal beliefs and values.

Speaking at the opening of the first Action for Justice conference of the Catholic Church’s social agency Crosscare, he praised its work and acknowledged that it was born in the long tradition of direct social provision by the Catholic Church, its religious congregations and numerous clergy and religious, in the fields of education, healthcare and social care.

He said: “The reality is that the practical well-being of thousands of people was significantly enhanced by this voluntary provision in a way that could not, at that time, have been achieved from very scarce public resources.”

President Higgins also welcomed the contribution to debate in the public realm inspired by the modern corpus of Catholic social thought.

He said that the Catholic emphasis on the dignity of the human person, the importance of participation, the necessity for solidarity and the overriding importance of the common good – complemented by the imperative of a preferential option for the poor – are progressive and valuable insights.