Ms. Maria Corbett:

I thank the Chairman and members for the invitation to make a presentation to the Joint Committee on Health and Children. I am conscious that I could speak at length so I have decided to keep it short and deal with the issue of child income supports and squeeze in the issue of the new child and family support agency.

I am Maria Corbett and I am with the Children's Rights Alliance. The alliance is a coalition of 100 organisations which are working to promote children's rights and to make the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child a reality in Ireland. We are very interested in the budget which has a major impact on children.

The Government in its programme for Government made a commitment to the establishment of a new child and family support agency early next year. In last year's budget the Government created a new Vote for the new agency. The new agency comprises the Family Support Agency, which has a clear budget and also the child and family services of the HSE. It is unclear what budget the HSE allocated specifically for its child and family service as this information was not in the public domain up to now. It is unclear what the HSE will allocate to the new agency. It is absolutely critical that we ensure that sufficient resources are granted to the new agency.

The new child and family support agency to be formally established next year will be a statutory body tasked with promoting the welfare and protection of children. It will also be tasked with supporting families in Ireland. It is absolutely critical that it gets an adequate budget and that it starts on the right foot.

I urge the committee in its work on children and the budget to watch the funding of this new agency closely. I understand the legislation establishing this new agency will come to the committee. I am flagging it for members and perhaps we can engage with them when they are reviewing the legislation.

I am almost loth to mention the children's referendum on Saturday, 10 November. If that referendum is passed, and we are strongly advocating a "Yes" vote, issues will need to be considered by this committee. Perhaps we can consider how best to address the questions of legislation and resources to make the outcome of the referendum a reality.

My main focus is on child income supports. People will know that throughout the years of the Celtic tiger, Ireland did not address the serious issue of child poverty. It is a national scandal that in a wealthy modern western European country we still have such a high rate of child poverty. The figures are astonishing. Almost one fifth of children in Ireland are living below the poverty line. Of those approximately 8% of children are living in deep poverty. That is just not acceptable in this day and age. We need to grasp this problem. We need to set out at a political level an ambitious child poverty target so that we begin to address this issue and take ownership of it. I am aware that we are in straitened economic times and that we need to figure out what to do with the annual budget. I am also aware that we spend a significant proportion, 2.2%, of GDP on child income support. I am conscious that money is invested in this area.

The issue I wish to raise is whether that money is being spent in the best possible way. It is absolutely critical that we ensure that cash and other supports go to vulnerable families. There are many families who are really struggling. The child benefit payment is an integral part of the support. While I acknowledge the child benefit payment needs to be reformed, I am also flagging that it would be very destabilising to make a dramatic change to the child benefit for the families who depend on it. The reality is that families with children are three times more likely to be in debt from ordinary household expenses. We need to be very conscious that Ireland has a very vulnerable population with children.

Our official position is that we do not wish child benefit payment to be cut, to be means tested or to be taxed but we are in favour of reform. The Department of Social Protection has produced a set of proposals around it. I wish to give members a sense of the direction in which we are leading on this issue.