It is an historic day today, as an amendment to the Children First Bill 2014 has removed the legal defence for ‘reasonable chastisement’ of children for parents and childminders.
This major move, implemented by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Dr James Reilly, has now brought our nation a step closer to criminalising the physical chastisement of children.
The proposal for a ‘smacking ban’, which came before the Seanad today, will shortly be presented to the Dáil before being signed into law.
The newly amended Bill will also focus on what constitutes the ‘emotional abuse’ and ‘neglect’ of a child.
MummyPages’ Mum-in-Residence Laura Haugh was invited by Senator Jill van Turnout to participate in the debate by the Houses of the Oireachtas, and there, the views of the MummyPages’ community were taken into consideration by the country's top policy-makers.
Commenting on the amendments, Laura said: “Our MummyPages mums wholeheartedly support the campaign…While a small number of our mums have admitted to slapping their child in extreme circumstances where their safety was at risk, almost all agree that it is not an effective or acceptable disciplinary method to use on a regular or even occasional basis.”
“It is our view that slapping another person, especially a vulnerable child is wrong. Firstly, allowing a caregiver to slap a child under the term 'reasonable chastisement' is legalising physical violence to another person and a form of child abuse… Secondly, slapping is not actually an effective form of discipline. Instead it breeds contempt and even more bad behaviour as the victim looks to punish the perpetrator for the injustice of the physical punishment by acting out again, and so the negative cycle continues,” she added.
This landmark amendment comes following a Council of Europe ruling, which stated that the lack of a clear ban on smacking in the Republic of Ireland violates children's rights.
