The Children's Rights Alliance Annual Report Card, now in its eighth edition, scrutinises the Government on its key commitments to children in the Programme for Government. For the fourth year in a row, the Government is awarded an overall ‘C’ Grade, as assessed and graded by our independent panel of experts, and reflecting a number of positive developments. However, there are also a number of key areas within which the government has continued to fail the most marginalised groups and these need to be urgently addressed.

One 'A' grade appears in Report Card 2016, namely the section on 'Inequalities in Family Life'. This is as a result of much-needed, comprehensive family law reform during 2015. The Chapter on Education fared well: 'School Buildings' received an 'A-'; 'Child Literacy' gained a 'B+'. The Right to Protection from Abuse and Neglect also did well receiving an overall 'B' grade. These were all dragged down by poor grades for 'Child Poverty' awarded an 'E-' grade and 'Child and Youth Homelessness', which dropped to an 'F'. The situation for 'Traveller and Roma Children' and 'Migrant Children' only slightly improved, receiving an 'E-' and a 'D-' respectively.

Read Report Card 2016 here

Read Report Card 2016 press release here

Chapter 1: Children's Constitutional Rights Report Card 2016 
Chapter 2: Right to Education Report Card 2016 
Chapter 3: Right to Health Report Card 2016 
Chapter 4: Right to Adequate Standard of Living Report Card 2016 
Chapter 5: Right to Protection from Abuse and Neglect Report Card 2016 
Chapter 6: Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination

The Report Card is a research tool aimed at improving the lives of all children in Ireland. We would like to thank our partners in helping to produce Report Card 2015 including Atlantic Philanthropies, Community Foundation of Ireland, the Katherine Howard Foundation, The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Irish Youth Foundation.