Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I welcome all our representative groups and guests to today's session. It is crucial that we take time to discuss the issues of child poverty and how we respond to it as a country. Every child should have the best start in life. It is not acceptable to me or, I am sure, any other member of the committee that children continue to live in poverty in Ireland. As a Deputy, I have countless constituents in Mayo who are suffering because of a lack of a proper income and because, increasingly, children do not have access to the basic services, be they special needs or health services. We all strive to see the provision of the necessary and available resources to support the target of eliminating child poverty.

My first question is to each of the representative groups. What are their top three resources needed to bring about the biggest change in addressing or eliminating child poverty?