Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone who has spoken today. It is very important that we highlight issues with child poverty. It is very hard to think of children in poverty. In Carlow I have been very involved with a group of people and we set up our own food bank. We call it St. Clare's Hospitality Kitchen. We provide up to 80 meals a day. During Covid we had to buy in meals. We also give out a lot of food parcels. I have seen at first hand families who are working and paying their bills and who find it very hard to survive at the end of the week when they have absolutely nothing left. They look for a food parcel. We have to be very careful because there are situations where families are working but they end up with nothing left particularly when they pay their bills. We are always mindful of this.

I have a question for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. According to the opening statement, in 2021 its regional office received more than 191 requests for help and almost 70% of these requests were from families with children. Do the witnesses believe this is an accurate figure? I believe from working in the community that there are families with children who need support but who do not look for it. Do the witnesses feel this is an issue? Is it something they often come across?

Another area I want to speak about is child support. Domestic violence has been very much part of the pandemic and the issue has been highlighted in recent weeks. It is an issue that we need to highlight. There should be more supports for children in this situation. We need to put supports in place, whether through schools or families. There should be supports for children affected by it. Are there enough counselling services? Do children get support? Does the system miss children who need these supports but we are not aware of them?

I want to raise another issue, which I have discussed with the Minister. I have been calling for action on it for the past eight months or a year. I know of families who left schools because they do not qualify for DEIS status.

There were no hot meals programmes or breakfast clubs. Some families are now sending their children to schools where they can access hot meals. We are living in a type of society where we must ensure, and I have been calling for this to happen, that all schools have these programmes, whether they are categorised as DEIS or not. We have been waiting months for the completion of the Minister's review of DEIS status. Schools have applied to the Minister for DEIS status because they are in disadvantaged areas. There has been no report on this subject yet, but I will keep working on it and continue to ask the Minister about it.

All schools, no matter what areas they are in, must now consider providing hot meals, because some families cannot afford hot meals themselves if they are paying a bill. The parents may be making sacrifices themselves, as was said, but if their children were in a school with a hot meals or breakfast programme, then they would at least know they were being fed. Everybody must be able to avail of these programmes. It is important that no children should feel that they are the exception for getting food when others are not. We must be mindful of that aspect.

Turning to the subject of lone parents, I have a major issue with local authorities not building two-bedroom houses. Lone parents on the local authority housing lists come to me, and these are people paying their rent with the housing assistance payment, HAP, and doing their best. They are being told, however, that no two-bedroom houses are available. We must get all the different agencies working together and undertake joined-up thinking. In addition, however, we must ensure that we are building houses, because we do not want to see children living in flats or rented accommodation in the context of HAP. If a house is sold, people can become homeless within three months. Therefore, one-parent families must be given more security. We must work on this issue in conjunction with other areas and bring about joined-up thinking in this regard.

We all know it has been hard during the pandemic. The only good thing the Covid-19 pandemic has done is to highlight the failings in our system, and especially those things that have not been highlighted enough previously. It is sad, in 2022, to have food banks, and endeavours such as St. Clare’s hospitality charity food kitchen in my area. We really should not have anyone living in poverty, and we must make this issue a priority for the Government. I thank everybody.