Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister and her colleagues for their time and attendance this morning and for her opening statement. I want to echo the Chair's comments. I would like to think we have gotten off to a very positive collaborative start, certainly when it came to the announcement last week to take the time to brief us as a committee, which was really productive. I thank the Minister for that.

The first question I would like us to start a discussion on focuses on the report from the Children's Rights Alliance this week, which established that more than 100,000 children in 2024 were experiencing consistent poverty. I have worked in the sector over a number of years but having listened to experts in the field, be they academic or representative bodies, they say that a major part of this is the manifestation of policy and the major solver of this is improving policy. Does the Minister have thoughts on that report on the concerning trend given that this was an increase of 45,000 children in a year who were experiencing consistent poverty? What is the Department looking to do as part of this Dáil term and what could this committee also look to progress with regard to child poverty?