Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

It would be worthwhile, in that context, for the committee to have the ESRI in and engage with it on that. We would try to use that engagement. We engage with it ourselves and with many bodies regarding this matter. We will publish a draft proposal in time when we have finished all that engagement and looked at it. The most important thing is that we target those child support payments and child poverty payments generally to families who need them the most. We are absolutely focused on reducing that child poverty rate. It is not one I want. We are focused not just on payments but also on other supports being introduced by the Government, for example, the schoolbooks grant and the expansion of the hot school meals programme.

Those two issues have not been fully tracked in child poverty rates yet. We are focused on reducing that rate. That is why we set a child poverty target that is very different from the one we have at the moment. We are enabling many tools to ensure we deliver on that.