Barnardos Submission to the Programme for Government

2011 marks an opportunity for significant change in Ireland. The new Programme for Government must reflect this opportunity. Much of the coverage of election 2011 focused on candidates’ experiences of going door to door in communities across the country. What they heard reflected the increasing hardship too many families are now facing. Barnardos knows these stories all too well. We work in some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged communities in Ireland. We see daily the increasing difficulties families face as the recession increasingly squeezes family incomes and the public services they rely on. We know that there are children sleeping in cold houses because their parents can’t afford the utility bills. We know that there are children going to school hungry because there isn’t enough food in the house. We understand the challenges facing the country and the new Government. But we believe that brave political choices must be made to change the long standing political culture that has sheltered those with the most and targeted those with the least. This Programme for Government must undo the legacy of the last.

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