Analysis: this may be a big step towards cherishing all our children equally, writes Carl O'Brien
It's 90 years since the State's founding fathers pledged to cherish all the children of the nation equally. Yet in the intervening decades, the reality has never matched the rhetoric of the time.
The absence of children's rights in the Constitution has had a serious impact on the welfare of some of the most vulnerable young people in the State.
In child custody cases, separations, divorce proceedings, child abuse cases and adoptions, the rights of married parents tend to dominate above all else. The best interests of the child is an after-thought.
Their invisibility means that courts have been making decisions that may be in a parent's interest, but not a child's.
Take child abuse, for instance. The only way the State can intervene is in exceptional cases where the threat facing a child is so great that parents are deemed to have effectively abandoned the child. This high threshold has played a major role in the State failing to intervene earlier in cases of abuse.
Another group of children placed at a disadvantage are foster children. Hundreds of children who have been placed in long-term foster care have not been able to get adopted due to the weight placed on the rights of the natural parent.
This is effectively denying these children a second chance of having a secure, safe childhood.
Then there are children who may need urgent medical procedures, but a parent objects on grounds which have little to do with the best interests of a child.
The point that binds all of these issues together is that the welfare of a parent and a child do not always coincide.
On first examination, the Taoiseach's plan to hold a referendum on children's rights is one which should attract cross-party support and little opposition. However, any attempt to tinker with the Constitution can cause unforeseen consequences and complications.
In this case, the difficulties could lie with the constitutional definition of the family, which has been at the centre of problems facing the State in vindicating children's right.
Any attempt to change this definition of the family as having "inalienable" rights could be seen as an attempt to undermine the status of the parents.
One solution would be to side-step the issue entirely and place rights for children in the section of the Constitution which deals with personal rights, and make it clear to courts.
However, a carelessly-worded amendment could spark fear and alarm in some circles over its implications for the status of family. It is not inconceivable that some could seek to stir up emotions.
Overall, the Taoiseach is likely to win many plaudits for putting children's rights on the agenda. It is a testament to the campaigning vigour of NGOs, children's rights campaigners and the Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, that a referendum now appears to be in the offing.
But before the Government basks too much in the afterglow of the announcement, it is worth remembering that the need for an express recognition of children's rights is nothing new.
The Kilkenny Incest Investigation Committee 13 years ago underlined the urgency of acting on the issue. The Constitution Review Group 10 years ago repeated this. And the UN has taken the State to task on a number of occasions over the matter.
The delay of successive governments acting on the issue has been too late for generations of vulnerable children.
The Taoiseach's announcement yesterday of plans to hold a referendum could help ensure future generations of children don't face the same risk.
And it could prove a decisive step towards that ambitious goal of cherishing all the children of the State equally.