NORTHERN Ireland’s Children’s commissioner has used her last day in office to call for the urgent return of Stormont.
First appointed in 2015, Koulla Yiasouma's role, championing the rights of young people, has navigated the challenges of four years without a functioning Assembly and two years of a pandemic.
In this time, she has been outspoken on issues of child poverty, paramilitary exploitation and a growing mental health crisis.
“I know I’ve done a gobby and a loud job, it remains to see how good a job I’ve done,” she told The Irish News.
An avid Arsenal fan and of Greek Cypriot origin, she has now urged political leaders not to squander any more momentum.
The DUP crashed the Stormont institutions over a year ago over concerns about the Northern Ireland Protocol, and are now taking time to consider the new Windsor Framework deal.
“When you say to anyone who has the power to get Stormont back, you need to do it. I don’t underestimate the issues about the protocol, or the potential of the Windsor Framework to repair that,” she said.
“What I do question is whether the protocol is more important than children’s education, children living in poverty or their health and well-being.”
She added: “That shouldn’t be a question. I don’t say this lightly, because I absolutely understand the importance of the protocol and British identity for a huge swathe of our community.
“But it’s not the children of Northern Ireland’s fault, nor is it in their gift to repair it. So I think our children have paid the price and we won’t know the full impact for a long time to come.”
Last February, Ms Yiasouma became tearful when addressing a Stormont committee discussing how political uncertainty was risking funding for youth mental health services.
“The emotion came from the feeling that it doesn’t have to be like this,” she said.
“My feeling is that children have been abandoned, even though talking to all the political parties including the DUP they really do care.
“That just hasn’t always been translated into action. If they come back, there’s no point in coming back if they don’t have a shared vision or an agreed plan."
Welcoming an improvement in attitudes to mental health treatment, she said it was now time to stop "tinkering around the edges" when it came to child poverty.
“For me, not even having a plan to eradicate child poverty is a huge source of frustration for me. Not having a plan to transform an education system that is inclusive of all its children is also of deep regret.
“We need transformation. It won’t always cost a huge amount of money, we just need to have a will to do things differently and better.”
