Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for sharing their experiences and knowledge today. We know that close to 100,000 children in Ireland are in consistent poverty, with another 200,000 at risk. We know that this year, organisations such as Depaul have seen really worrying increases in calls for help. The submissions and experiences of the witnesses are essential in helping the committee to understand and advocate for change. Regarding what Senator Ruane said, I do not think we can really have a discussion about reaching equality, whether it is gender equality or equality for children in one-parent families, without having a conversation about childcare in this country.

My first question is for the representatives of the National One Parent Family Alliance. It has called for investment in public early years care and education, with free childcare for children in one-parent families. Currently, the States spends 0.3% of GDP on early years, which is far below the European average of 0.8% and the UNICEF recommended benchmark of 1%. I ask the witnesses to elaborate, for everybody watching and for the committee, on the importance of a publically-funded model of childcare for one-parent families.

There are similar issues with the social protection system. The practice of social welfare rates being solely dependent on the decision of a Government at each budget that we see every year is not only ignorant of the reality of life for so many thousands of people in Ireland, but it is also very paternalistic. The National One Parent Family Alliance has highlighted the importance of a social protection system that is based on evidence and is benchmarked against the MESL. I ask the representatives of the alliance to expand on that. If there is time, I also have a question for the representatives of Rialto Youth Project, but I will leave it at that for now in case there is not time.