Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Substantial funds are going to low-income families. However, I accept the Deputy's point. Despite the expenditure, there are too many children at risk of poverty, regardless of whether the figure is the 66,000 quoted in one study or the 120,000 quoted in another. That is the reason we are trying to design something that will target them. All the reports, however, indicate that there is a problem with identification, location and trying to focus on them rather than on a wide area and, thus, spreading our resources too thinly.

The amalgamation of the two allowances is one step but it is not the only one. Poverty is tackled across the board in a number of ways by the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Finance, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Department of Education and Science, which has a major role. There is no single solution to poverty, even child poverty. It is a multi-faceted programme that calls for joined up Government. That is what I am fighting to achieve.

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