IN the vast majority of cases, parents do make the correct choices for their children — the adage of 'parents know best' certainly rings true for countless children in this state.

However, not every parent in this state has made the correct choice for their child, sometimes with horrific consequences. Children in this state are being neglected and there is a pervading culture of nonintervention. A prime example of this being the Kilkenny incest case in the 1990s, which rocked the country.

More recently, the Roscommon incest case hit the headlines where a mother was found guilty of incest with a son and neglect of her children. She is presently serving a seven year sentence.

Just two weeks, ago a jury found the children's father (52) guilty of 47 counts of rape and sexual assault against his son, now aged 20. The offences took place from 2000 to 2004, when the boy and his siblings were finally taken into care.

A review of the Roscommon 'house of horrors' has found that one reason social workers did not pursue the care issues with the children was because the parents were a married couple and they felt, as a result of a previous High Court injunction case, that they could not legally intervene. There was also a belief that matters improved in 2001.

Within the Constitution, parents and the family have extreme rights as the present article 41 and article 42 testify. But children scarcely get a look in or have a say.

That could well change as in the past week the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children put forward their proposed 172 paged report.

After 62 meetings, countless drafting, and submissions from over 200 interest groups, it is now hoped that this report will not be left on a shelf to gather dust, but will quickly be put forward for a referendum.

The new Article 42 which is being put forward proposes to abolish the constitutional distinction between marital and non-marital children. It also means that the rights of children as individuals, rather than a subordinate of the family, is also significant. Considering that one in every three children are born to unmarried mothers is surely testament that all children must be treated equally.

The time of the 1937 Constitution and life in modern Ireland today are of very different.

Within the report, another recommendation that children of a married couple could be adopted by another family is a huge step forward for children. For the hundreds of children whose welfare is thrashed out by adults and solicitors life could also change radically, as Art 42.1.2 would mean 'that a child would have a right to have their voice heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, having regard to the child's age and degree of maturity'.

Mark Kelly of The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) hit the nail on the head when he said that the committee's recommendations finally provide recognition at a constitutional level that children are "not mini-human beings with mini-human rights". The quicker this proposal is put through and a referendum put to the people the better.

After all, the new amendment proposes to 'cherish all children'. Now, that really is to be welcomed.

- MARIA HERLIHY