COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCLUDES REVIEW OF IRELAND’S IMPLEMENTATION OF COVENANT

AFTERNOON
HR/ESC/99/17
5 May 1999



The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon concluded its review of the initial report presented by the Government of Ireland on how that country was implementing the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Observations and recommendations on the Irish report will be issued by the Committee towards the end of its three-week session which concludes on 14 May.

The 13-member Irish delegation, answering questions raised by Committee's experts this afternoon, said that abortion was prohibited in the country and that annually, more than 5,000 Irish women had abortions in England and Wales. Irish doctors were entitled to provide information regarding abortion services available in other countries to pregnant women. At the same time, post-abortion counselling and medical check-ups were available to women on their return to Ireland.

Committee members questioned the delegation on a number of issues including poverty eradication strategy; standard of eduction; housing problems; homelessness; situation of travellers; mental health and disability matters; teenage suicide; alcoholism and tobacco consumption; abortion and domestic violence.

As one of the 139 State parties to the Covenant, Ireland must submit periodic reports to the Committee on measures taken to implement the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 6 May, it will take up the second periodic report of Tunisia.

Discussion

The Committee's experts queried the delegation of Ireland on such topics as regulation of tobacco consumption in accordance with the World Health Organization; the increase in the prices of health treatment; the conditions for house buying; the situation of homelessness; and the rights of travellers who lived in road sides or unauthorized localities.

Answering those and other questions raised this morning, the delegation said that in 1995, child income support had been increased by 72 per cent for families who have more than one child. The number of recipients in that category had risen from 165,551 in 1985 to 218,336 in 1995. Income support for children in the lower income family categories had also significantly increased since 1995.

On anti-poverty strategy, the delegation said that following the United Nations Social Development Conference held in Copenhagen, Ireland had established a national poverty strategy which was aimed at analysing the impact of poverty regionally and within the social security schemes. It also required the development of a permanent policy and strategy which would enable the eradication of poverty in the society. Each department and regional administration was required to design its own strategy and structure policies to deal with poverty. According to the delegation, a report on the overall strategy on the eradication of poverty, containing the outcome of the research and analysis, would be published within the next few months.

In addition, the Irish delegation viewed the improvement in the employment sector as part of an anti-poverty strategy. The need to review the whole structure of the social security system was found by the Government to be of prime priority. Other studies, particularly addressing rural development, were envisaged to identify rural poverty and to find means to reduce that phenomenon. Similarly, the inter-ministerial anti-poverty strategy agency had also developed and introduced the idea of establishing social indicators and benchmarks in order to measure development reached which would enable the Government to draw up an effective policy.

Concerning the issue of education, the delegation said an important measure had been taken in recent years which was considered as a "breaking the cycle" step in school systems. Legislative was also introduced by the Government under the education welfare bill regarding school absentees and the fact that certain students did not seem to gain at all from the existing school system. Already in 1998, the Government had allocated 57 million Irish Pounds to help disadvantaged students in schools.

With regard to housing rights, the members of the Irish delegation said that 42,000 persons had been registered in the house management services looking for houses. The number of persons in the Dublin area was even higher. In addition, in 1998, the range of price increase in house sales was 22.8 per cent compared to 4 per cent in 1994. The number of household looking for houses either to buy or to rent had increased in recent years.

On the question of homelessness, the delegation said that the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin had been assessing the situation of homeless persons and the outcome was expected to be published soon. In addition, out of the 4,700 travelling families, 1,140 families were living in the road sides or in areas where they were not allowed to stay. Only 2,300 of them lived in structured houses specifically built for traveller families. In 1998, special legislation had been enacted regarding housing needs and accommodation for travellers.

Answering a question on mental health and disability, the delegation affirmed that there was no specific legislation on the protection and care of handicapped persons in general. However, Government agencies and voluntary services had been taking care of the centres and the general situation of disabled persons. The Ministry of Health and Children had currently been investing more on the well-being of that segment of the population.

With regards to alcohol abuse, the delegation said the Government of Ireland had been involved in the development of a number of initiatives tackling the problem of alcohol and drug misuse among young people. A programme on substance abuse prevention had been launched to enable students to develop their ability to make informed decisions about the use of drugs in their lives. Other similar programmes had also been implemented to raise awareness among the youth on drug and alcoholic beverage consumption.

The country's alcohol policy which was published in September 1996 was still in the implementation stage, the delegation noted.

Tobacco consumption was another issue discussed in the course of the Committee's consideration of the Irish report. The delegation said that legislation on this matter subscribed to the World Health Organization (WHO) standard on tobacco. Health education and preventive campaigns had already been launched, particularly among the young population that was estimated to increasingly consume much more cigarettes. A multi-media campaign had also been carried out in addition to the legal measures to control media publicity of tobacco. Tobacco-producing companies were also encouraged not to sponsor sports and other events of public interest.

In order to remedy the difficulty faced by the population on the long waiting lists for hospital treatment, the Government had injected additional funds in the hospital systems to remedy the problem. Despite the increased amount of injected funds each year, the problem had persisted to cause difficulties for patients. Thus, in addition to the funds available for the hospital system, simultaneous community-based fund injection had been found essential. Measures had also been undertaken to improve the situation of the elderly who were also affected by the long hospital waiting lists. In 1998 alone, there were 36,000 persons waiting to be treated or hospitalized.

Concerning teenage suicide, a lot had been done by the Government through educational and preventive measures, the delegation went to say. In November 1995, a national task force on suicide had been established to increase public awareness on the issue, and particularly among youth. In February 1998, a preventive strategy was adopted by the Government to engage experts to produce research on the subject.

With regard to the elderly, the delegation said that assistance and care had been provided for persons by helping them in their own houses in dignity and independence. The Government had underlined the need to help the elderly in their own dwellings and support them whenever there was a possibility to do so. There were no reliable figures indicating elderly persons taking refuge in drinking alcohol due to loneliness.

A question was asked about the status of abortion in Ireland, to which the delegation responded that abortion was prohibited in the country. For that reason, more than 5,000 Irish women had abortions every year in England and Wales. Irish doctors were entitled to provide information regarding abortion services available in other countries to pregnant women. At the same time, post-abortion counselling and medical check-ups were available to women on their return to Ireland.

On domestic violence and sexual assault against women, the delegation told the Committee that owing to the concern that more rapes were being reported to rape crisis centres, additional studies of the situation had been carried put by the Government. A task force had also been established to monitor the situation by making recommendations to tackle the problem of violence against women. A network of quality services for abused women and their children and intervention programmes for violent men which confronted violent behaviour were recommended.