We’ve made a real impact on the lives of children and young people living in Ireland.
Founded in 1995, we unite 150 member groups who work to change the lives of all children and young people in Ireland by making sure their rights are respected and protected in laws, policies, and services. Through campaigning and collaboration, we have a long legacy of lasting impact for children and young people.
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2023
Establishing Ireland's first Online Safety Commissioner
Through our 1,2,3 Online Safety Campaign, we campaigned for key amendments to the Online Safety and Media Regulation (OSMR) Bill including the establishment of a dedicated Online Safety Commissioner and individual complaints mechanism to protect children and young people’s rights online.
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2022
Making the case for a dedicated Child Poverty Unit
We campaigned for the establishment of a dedicated unit at the highest levels of Government to lead cross-departmental work to end child poverty. In December 2022, the Taoiseach announced a new Child Poverty and Wellbeing Unit.
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2022
Addressing Food Poverty
As a means to address the ‘holiday hunger’ families were experiencing when schools closed for the summer, we ran a food provision scheme, supporting 4 organisations to provide food to 660 children across 242 families. In November, we launched further funding to support organisations working with children and their families over Christmas.
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2022
Active member of the Civil Society Forum responding to the needs of Ukrainian children and young people
We held 12 meetings and briefings for members with a range of agencies including: UNICEF Ireland, Tusla, and the National Coordinating Response Forum, Eurochild, the UNHCR Ireland, the Department of Education and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We also updated our Know Your Rights Information Guide for refugees and Tusla funded the translation into Ukrainian and Russian.
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2021
Launch of Children's Futures campaign to keep schools open
Following the school closures in response to Covid-19, we launched our #ChildrensFuturesIRL campaign. Working with 12 Alliance members, we successfully advocated for early years settings to remain open for vulnerable children, for the reopening of schools. The campaign also sought a ‘catch-up’ fund to address the impact on children’s education, with Budget 2023 including €45 million to support the
continuation of the Summer Programme which helped to mitigate against learning loss. -
2021
White Paper on Ending Direct Provision
In February 2021, the Government published its landmark roadmap to end direct provision, including specific commitments for children and young people. The Alliance advocated for own-door accommodation for families and the introduction of a child benefit style payment. Tanya Ward, our Chief Executive was also appointed to the Programme Board overseeing its implementation, by the Minister for Children.
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2020
National Policy Framework for Children and Young People
We helped secure commitments on childhood obesity, food poverty, child poverty, and support for child victims in this Framework.
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2020
No Child 2020 - Making Child Poverty a Political Priority
In 2019/2020, we ran a national campaign raising awareness of the causes of child poverty and what steps Government need to take in order to help children and families currently trapped in poverty. The No Child 2020 campaign was inspired by the one hundred year anniversary of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil on 21 January 1919. The Irish Times ran an editorial spotlight on child poverty in their series of the same name.
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2017
An end to the detention of boys in adult prisons
We campaigned for many years to stop the practice of detaining children in St Patrick’s Institution – an adult prison. This serious children’s rights violation finally stopped and vulnerable children are now better protected.
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2015
The Children and Family Relationships Act
We campaigned for this legislation, which provides legal clarity around family types and addresses discrimination facing children in non-marital families. This represents the most important reform of child and family law for a generation, putting children at its very heart.
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2014
Reform of Children’s Services – Child and Family Agency (Tusla)
We worked with our members to ensure children’s rights would be at its heart and include greater focus on family support and educational welfare.
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2013
Real action for child victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation
Between 2010 and 2013 we were the Irish partner of The Body Shop Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People campaign, securing 165,000 signatures calling on the Government to implement the law and support child victims.
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2012
Campaigning for – and winning – the Children’s Rights Referendum
We campaigned and won a referendum to strengthen children’s rights in the Constitution so that children would be better respected and protected.
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2002
Establishing Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children
Dedicated to safeguarding children’s rights through independent investigation of public bodies, we campaigned for the Office’s establishment and supported a group of children to select the first ever Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan.