Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My apologies. The proposed amendment calls for an annual analysis of child poverty rates and an independent report thereon to be issued to the Minister and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection. There is already independent annual reporting of child poverty rates through the Central Statistics Office survey on income and living conditions, SILC, which is carried out as part of an EU-wide survey overseen by EUROSTAT. SILC forms the basis for further extensive official reporting on child poverty rates through the publication of the Department's annual social inclusion monitor, SIM. The purpose of this monitor is to report officially on progress towards the national social targets for poverty reduction, including the child-specific poverty rate.

The SIM 2014 is the latest monitor and was published in April 2016. It includes a specific section that reports on the child social target and related indicators for children and young people. The findings from the monitor are used to report on progress towards the national social targets for poverty reduction in the national reform programme. Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures contains the child-specific poverty target and commitments on improving economic security and opportunity outcomes for children and young people.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has published two annual reports on progress with implementing commitments to date. These reports are published in May of each year as part of the monitoring and reporting mechanisms set up for the framework. There is also independent annual commentary on child poverty from the Children's Rights Alliance and other social monitoring by groups, such as TASC.

Given the extensive reporting on child poverty that already exists through a number of different channels, one of which is independent of my Department, namely, the CSO, there does not appear to be a need for additional reporting of the same data by my Department.