Ms Gillian O'Connor:

If we look at the education focus, I agree completely with what the Senator is saying. As I am sitting here and listening, I am thinking there is a class-based inequality here that is often skirted around or that we are uncomfortable discussing. In Ireland, people are particularly hesitant in some ways to identify that. We always purposely use the language around that because we understand and see all the time that this class-based inequality exists. In the multigenerational project we did, it was local people who were saying that a bubble exists and that they know they are in it, that it makes a difference and makes their experiences more challenging.

There is also the gender-based focus. It was said earlier that the parent in 86% of one-parent families is female. We cannot ignore that issue either. Where have women been left in this? They are trying to support and raise their families essentially alone in many ways. Looking at children in working-class communities, and people talk about the zero-to-three age group as extremely important as education starts from birth, but research shows that children who are in persistent poverty by the time they are three years old are already nine months behind other children in terms of their school readiness. At three years there is already that barrier. Where does that leave children and their families? Children might manage in early primary education but it has been shown that those in persistent poverty are already experiencing marginalisation and feeling alienation. That is the reality for children. We see them coming in here all the time.

They already know that the struggles that they have and the life that they have is different from children from other areas. By the time they are in late primary school, those challenges are compounded even more. The transition from primary to secondary school is a pivotal time in children's lives and for their family and adolescence. It is a really difficult time to navigate anyway. The gap around those education inequalities just widens even more, and early school-leaving compounds those issues. In terms of looking at the educational aspect, those children are on a path where the road to higher education or the labour market is already compromised or foregone for many of them within communities where there is a risk of other issues that children are always having to navigate and figure out.

For us, in terms of after-school projects, we have faced a recent challenge around the universal funding that is available for community-based after-school projects. From our point of view, we are not a childcare service. We see ourselves as doing really important community development work that happens with children around their educational, social and physical development in all those sorts of ways. Members of the Dublin 8 After School Alliance presented to the committee in October on the challenges that are facing us. The universal funding that is there now is going to mean that within the next year to 18 months, community-based after-school projects are going to have to close their doors. In Dublin 8 alone, that will mean that up to 500 children will not have access to that community-based support that provides hot meals and a space that they can come to and develop their education, social, recreational skills and all those really important things in children's and young people's lives.

I absolutely agree with the Senator. We know the things that can change in terms of poverty and that, but who is willing, at State level, to take that step and take those risks and say "enough is enough"? How are we really going to impact on very real issues facing children and young people in working-class areas?