Mr. Niall Egan:

Absolutely. As the Deputy said, the Government priority for the timeline for Ireland to become the best country in which to be a child by 2030 is a multifaceted issue. From the Department's perspective, our goal is to reduce child poverty. We have a new child poverty target to reduce consistent child poverty to 3% by the end of the decade. We are currently at 8.5%, so it is a huge challenge. This ties into a question about how we measure poverty and real-time effectiveness. We measure child poverty based on consistent poverty, which is measured by the Central Statistics Office as part of its survey on income and living conditions published every year. It is the overlap between deprivation and income poverty, and is known as the risk of poverty. It is how these two measurements overlap and it is the percentage of children within that. This is usually published in quarter 1 of every year by the Central Statistics Office and we will be tracking it each year over the lifetime of this target and reporting on it.

The Deputy is right about cross-cutting being a huge issue in how to tackle child poverty, because it is not just about income but also services. Other committee members referred to homelessness and health services, which Deputy Roche alluded to. Since being established in 2023, the child poverty and well-being unit in the Department of the Taoiseach has taken this issue on board. A programme plan has been identified and a concerted focus has been placed on child poverty across government. The unit will produce a report after budget 2026 on the impact on child poverty of the measures the Department of Social Protection and other Departments will introduce as part of budget 2026. The unit participates in an annual summit held by the Taoiseach every year - it was held in September this year - to bring a focus on child poverty. It is to the fore in liaising with Departments in advance of the budget to highlight the issue of child poverty and to discuss how child poverty will be tackled as part of their budget measures and their asks in advance of the budget.

As part of budget 2026, the Department introduced a package of measures, leaving aside the core social welfare rates, that amounts to €320 million specifically to target child poverty. These relate to the largest ever increase in the child support payment, namely, €8 for under-12s and a €16 increase for children who are 12 and over. That is by far the largest increase the Department has ever made in the child support payment. We have increased the working family payment thresholds by €60, with effect from January, for all family sizes. We have extended the fuel allowance to all recipients of the working family payment. We have just spoken about the extension of the back-to-work family dividend for people who are exiting the disability allowance or blind pension for employment. The domiciliary care allowance will also go up by €20 per month from January. There are a few other measures as well.

I have tried to answer comprehensively. I am not sure that I got everything but I might ask my colleague Mr. Hession if he wants to contribute.