Dr. Naomi Feely:

The Children's Rights Alliance really welcomes the opportunity to be here today to discuss the important issue of child poverty and deprivation.

We know from the most recent data from the CSO that children have one of the highest rates of poverty, in particular when we look at poverty across all age groups. There has been a notable spike in the rate of consistent poverty, rising from 4.8% in 2023 to 8.5% in 2024. This equates to an additional 45,000 children experiencing the worst form of poverty in Ireland.

The statistics are alarming, but they only provide information about a point in time. As my colleague, Susanne, has just mentioned, the impact and harm caused by poverty can have a profound and long-lasting effect. Research shows that long-term exposure to poverty impacts physical and mental health outcomes, including a poorer self-concept. Adults who have grown up with bad financial circumstances are almost twice as likely to report their health as being bad compared with those growing up in good financial circumstances.

The Children's Rights Alliance publishes a flagship publication, the Child Poverty Monitor, each year and we undertake a children's-rights based approach to examining child poverty and proposing solutions to it.

This framework promotes three integrated strategies, namely, access to adequate resources through income adequacy and measures to tackle food poverty; access to affordable quality services such as early childhood education and care and education, health, housing and accommodation, family support and alternative care and, critically; it also promotes children's participation both in play, culture, recreation and participation in decision-making.

I will briefly touch on each of these but I am very happy to have a deeper discussion on them with members. In terms of income, the Children's Rights Alliance is particularly concerned about the inadequacy of the income available to families containing older children and those headed by one adult. The latest data shows that social welfare supports meet just 64% of the minimum costs of children and young people attending second level education. This is in comparison with younger children in primary school where the income meets 88% of their needs. Children living in a one-parent household are almost three times more likely to experience deprivation as their peers living in a two-parent household.

When we think about the issue of food poverty, as food is the most flexible part of a family's budget, many families also experience food poverty with one in five individuals living in consistent poverty saying they are unable to afford a roast dinner once a week.

The latest Starting Strong report published by the OECD notes that children who participate in early childhood education and care are more likely to succeed in education and access secure jobs and are less likely to be engaged in crime, meaning that investment in quality services for children's early years leads to savings later on.

The introduction of the equal start model in May 2024 was a very welcome initiative in terms of tackling child poverty in children's early years in this regard. A significant increase in investment for equal start is really needed in order for us to break the cycle of poverty. In addition, we need a dedicated public health nurse, PHN, service for children and GPs working in areas with high levels of intergenerational trauma and poverty must be provided with increased resources. These initiatives, combined with home visiting and intensive family support services are critical in terms of preventing children and young people from having to be supported by Tusla's child protection and welfare services or being provided with alternative care.

Children and young people in schools located in communities experiencing persistent intergenerational poverty often experience trauma and adverse childhood experiences that require supports beyond the existing model of provision under DEIS. The Children's Rights Alliance welcomes the commitment by the Minister for Education and Youth on the development of a new DEIS plus programme. We also welcome the commitment in recent days the commitment of funding for this programme.

The issue of most critical importance to children is participation and the right to play. While participation structures for children and young people are well developed in Ireland, certain groups of children and young people can face a multitude of barriers when it comes to accessing spaces to play. These include a lack of green space in housing complexes or recreational spaces in homeless accommodation. The negative implications of play deprivation may be significant to a child's development, as play impacts their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. A commitment to establish a national policy on play in the First 5 strategy is very welcome. We really need cross-government actions to be included in it to address the unmet play needs of certain groups of children.

My colleague, Dr. Siobhán O'Reilly, and I are very happy to respond to any questions members have on this opening statement and our accompanying submission on child poverty, in addition to recent developments in budget 2026.