Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being a bit late. I will try to keep this brief. I am here on behalf of Deputy Funchion, who is the Chair of the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. One issue that the committee spends a lot of time dealing with is child poverty and its consequences. We are looking at amendments in respect of the child care (amendment) Bill and children coming into care, a lot of which is grounded, ultimately, in poverty and neglect. We are dealing with issues around unmet needs, which are often exacerbated by and exacerbate the consequences of poverty. My question, therefore, is about the child poverty unit. We have had a lot of talk about it, and I know that members of our committee are very interested in it and very interested to see positive outcomes from it because it directly impacts the work the committee does day in, day out. What I am looking for is a concrete update on where things stand with that unit. We have had a lot of talk of its establishment, but when does the Taoiseach hope to see concrete deliverables coming out of the unit and concrete work the committee can engage with and put its hands on? Poverty is so oppressive and so destructive for so many of the communities of all Deputies. Ultimately, we want to see real action on that, and we will see that only when there are concrete deliverables coming out from the child poverty unit.