The office of the children’s right’s commissioner will have its budget increased by 23 per cent next year, its new commissioner Elena Pericleous said on Friday.

Addressing the House finance committee, she said the budget increase will be used to “effectively staff the office” and ensure that it can “continue its work”.

In total, the office has been allocated just shy of €970,000, with it expected to appoint seven new workers in the coming months.

“We hope that the public service commission will proceed immediately to fill [the new vacancies], so that the office can operate,” she said.

She added that her goal is for her office to “be able to operate preventatively, so as to prevent violations of children’s rights”, with her office receiving around 550 complaints per year.

Disy MP Fotini Tsiridou asked Pericleous what her office is doing to combat issues of abuse and bullying, and Pericleous answered that those matters are “at the forefront of the office’s actions and activities”.