Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank everyone. I was heartened by Ms Smith's excellent story.

Ireland signed up to the European Child Guarantee in June 2021. It aims to prevent and combat child poverty and social exclusion in the EU. Ms Byrne referred to the different supports. What plan do we have? We need a plan. What type of childcare centres should we have? Should they be community-based centres, co-operatives, employer-led, co-location, or should some be managed through the local childcare committee? It is important to consider that. Communication is the key here. We spoke about that earlier.

During the pandemic, the OECD noted that Covid-19 has harmed "the health, and social and material wellbeing of children" from the poorest families. Area-based childhood programmes and targeted supports are a priority in the national development plan, NDP, which was launched recently. What could be changed in the NDP where we could make a difference?

Covid-19 has played a huge part for community supports, through fundraising and through different grants for food parcels and hampers. People in the community are so good to fundraise for different causes. We have the St. Clare's Hospitality Kitchen, which is a kitchen in Carlow. It plays a huge role in helping families and children. How do the witnesses feel about this? The Government now needs to look at these supports.

Ms Smith referred to applying to the local authority for the housing assistance payment, HAP. That is a big issue. If someone works and exceeds the threshold, he or she can lose all of that payment. We need to look at that. There is no joined-up thinking.

Even yesterday, for example, the Minister for Social Protection announced additional hot school meals programmes. Carlow only got one of those. I know for a fact that children are leaving schools that do not have the hot school meals programme and they are being sent to schools that have the programme. We need to address this so that all schools have a hot school meals programme, because it is affecting schools. As well as this, parents may have no other choice but to send their children to a school where they will be fed and get their meal. Across the board, we have learned from this meeting that we need to target schools. They have a huge impact on children and their lives. They should be fed there. Every school in the country should have a hot school meals programme.

Christmas is coming now and it can be a hard time for families that do not have any money. The children are seeing all the Christmas advertisements on the television. I wonder how we can help. What supports are needed? As Ms Smith said, we need to provide supports. While they might only be for the short term, we need supports and joined-up thinking.

There has been an increase in domestic violence during the pandemic. While we have always had domestic violence, it increased during the lockdowns. In my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny, there is no women’s refuge in County Carlow. We need to address that. We need to look at all these different supports with everyone working together. I was touched today by the stories. I thank all of the witnesses for coming. Many of the questions that I was going to ask have been asked. However, the witnesses might come back to me with some answers.