Ms Carly Bailey:

It is great to see the renewed focus on wanting to do more about child poverty. Reflecting on the budgets for the last number of years, there has been some insulation but it definitely has been nowhere near enough for families that literally have just one income while having children or young people in their house to try to feed, clothe, educate and keep warm and trying to keep a roof over their heads. The Department of the Taoiseach has a child poverty and well-being unit or office. That office was established by the previous Government and it has been kept on.

Child poverty does not happen in a vacuum. It does not just happen to the child in the family. It is children who are most at risk of poverty so the focus must be on combating child poverty. We are not going to solve child poverty, however, until we understand that it happens within a family situation irrespective of how that family has come to be. Communities also need that extra support. Child poverty is a very complex issue. We hope that it will all start to come to together soon. We look forward to the upcoming budget and it would be good to see what is coming down the tracks to tackle child poverty.