Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Joint Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development
Child Poverty: Discussion
2:00 am
Ms Louise Bayliss:
When we talk about child poverty, we have to be clear as to what we are talking about. While we often hear that 8.5% of children are living in consistent poverty, the reality breaks down very differently. The overall consistent poverty rate in Ireland is 5%. For children in two-parent families that have one to three children, it is 6%, so it is only 20% higher than the rate for the general population. For children in one-parent households, it is 11%, which is more than double.
If we are going to address child poverty, we need to look at what is it. In general, it is the issues associated with supporting a family on one income. We have done all the research. There is a great deal of research and data on lone parents. I am not excited when I hear about a new research report because I know exactly what it is going to say. It is going to say that we need affordable childcare, affordable housing, well-paid jobs with family-friendly hours, and the enforcement of child maintenance. We have such a housing crisis that people on two incomes cannot manage so there is no way a lone parent can manage.
Looking at the childcare system, there are no extra subsidies for people in childcare so we do not have the affordable childcare we need. In addition, many people cannot access childcare. The national childcare subsidy scheme is generally based on a nine-to-five model, so if you work in retail, hospitality, nursing or caring, as many lone parents do, you cannot get a subsidy. There are subsidies for childminders but there are 87 registered childminders who are eligible for that subsidy. There are more lotto millionaires than eligible childminders. You have more chance of winning the lotto than finding a childminder.
The enforcement of child maintenance is dire and this is causing child poverty. This is an easy way for the Government to target child poverty. We all worked really hard to get a child maintenance agency. That did not happen. There were some positive changes, such as the non-assessment of child maintenance, but we still need that child maintenance to support children. The ESRI Growing Up in Ireland survey showed that only 36% to 38% were regularly getting maintenance. That means a massive number of children are not being supported. The State will go after me if I do not pay my property tax. It will go to Revenue and enforce it. In the Department of Justice review of January 2024, we were promised that this would happen. Nearly two years on, we have not seen any progress on that. These are key drivers. If we are serious about addressing child poverty, these are things we could do.
At the height of the cost-of-living crisis, St. Vincent de Paul received just over 250,000 calls, the highest number of people ever to approach us. The number dropped slightly last year as a result of the one-off payments. It went down to approximately 249,000. This year, we expect to breach the 250,000 again. When Mr. Thornton and I look at the figures, we work out an assessment of what families will need in support from us. We are fearful that the number of calls will be a lot higher in 2026. I do not have a crystal ball but that is our view based on the facts and what is happening. The calls we get are very reflective of the data we see from the CSO and the MESL research. It is about people living alone on one income. That is why we asked for targeted support through the living alone allowance, which was not provided. It is also about people with a disability, lone parents and households with children. We are fairly confident that the research and the calls reflect that path quite closely. We know the solutions and we have offered them. The research is there. It is really just a question of implementation. Mr. Ginnell made a really good point. We are all on the steering group. Every time we meet, the targets that have been reached are ticked off, but it is very easy to cover all your targets without making an impact. When the strategy comes out this year, it will be really important that the targets are measurable and impactful.
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