Op­po­si­tion Shad­ow Min­is­ter for Chil­dren’s Af­fairs, Bar­ry Padarath says Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's de­flect­ed from the re­al is­sues and ques­tions raised in the af­ter­math of re­ports of abuse at Chil­dren's homes. 

In a press re­lease is­sued this af­ter­noon, Mr Padarath ques­tioned why forty-six per cent of com­mu­ni­ty res­i­dences have been un­li­censed for the past sev­en years. He has al­so filed a pri­vate mem­bers mo­tion in the Par­lia­ment that will be de­bat­ed on the gov­ern­ment’s atro­cious han­dling of the af­fairs of chil­dren in this coun­try.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from MP Padarath:

Op­po­si­tion Shad­ow Min­is­ter for Chil­dren’s Af­fairs, Bar­ry Padarath has slammed the Prime Min­is­ter for what he de­scribes as a weak and fee­ble se­ries of ex­cus­es re­gard­ing Gov­ern­ment's han­dling of the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dences as it re­lates to the re­port on the rape, abuse and mur­der of chil­dren.

Padarath stat­ed that the Prime Min­is­ter de­flect­ed from the re­al is­sues and ques­tions raised in the af­ter­math of the re­port be­ing made pub­lic and in­stead chose to make ex­cus­es for his in­com­pe­tence in ef­fec­tive­ly deal­ing with the sit­u­a­tion.

The Princes Town MP ques­tioned why the Prime Min­is­ter did not ex­plain why forty-six per­cent of Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dences are un­li­censed for the past sev­en years. He al­so ques­tioned why there was no ur­gency in ad­dress­ing and or re­view­ing the le­gal frame­work that gov­erns the li­cens­ing of chil­dren res­i­dences in the past sev­en years with a view of mon­i­tor­ing and su­per­vis­ing the ac­tiv­i­ties of the homes.

The Princes Town MP stat­ed that the is­sues af­fect­ing the Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dences and the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty have been lan­guish­ing for over sev­en years and on­ly when there was an out­cry from the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, on­ly then the Prime Min­is­ter found his voice on the mat­ter.

Padarath, in re­sponse to the Prime Min­is­ter, sought to cor­rect the Prime Min­is­ter by say­ing that no one called for the chil­dren from un­li­censed homes to be dis­placed by shut­ting down the homes in a vac­u­um.  He stat­ed that the un­li­censed homes were sup­posed to be reg­u­lat­ed and su­per­vised by the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty. There­fore, if they did not meet the stan­dard and cri­te­ria, then the Chil­dren Au­thor­i­ty was sup­posed to en­sure that they com­plied with what was re­quired and make suit­able and safe al­ter­na­tive arrange­ments for the chil­dren in their care un­til they could com­ply. 

The Princes Town MP stat­ed that the Op­po­si­tion has been call­ing on the gov­ern­ment for the past sev­en years to es­tab­lish a Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion on Chil­dren, es­tab­lish a Chil­dren's Om­buds­man, strength­en the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit, prop­er­ly re­source the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty and re­view the process of adop­tion.

Padarath has filed a pri­vate mem­bers mo­tion in the Par­lia­ment that will be de­bat­ed on the gov­ern­ment’s atro­cious han­dling of the af­fairs of chil­dren in this coun­try.