David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

Does the Minister agree he is massaging the figures and that he has ignored the number of children in relative income poverty who live in households where the income is less than 60% of median disposable income? Does he agree the number of these children is estimated to be an additional 240,000 on top of the between 60,000 and 120,000 children whom the Minister says are affected in some way by consistent poverty? Does he agree it is a disgrace in this day and age? What has he done and what does he intend to do about it in the short term to ensure these children are removed from the risk of poverty?

Does the Minister agree that lone-parent households are exposed to a greater incidence of child poverty than dual or single income two parent households? Will the Minister tell the House why this figure of relative income poverty represents the highest rate of child poverty to be found in the European Union? This is an indictment of the policies of the Minister's Department and the Government, they have failed the children of Ireland by ignoring relative income poverty statistics put forward by the Combat Poverty Agency, an independent agency that castigated the Government for not taking relative income poverty into account and ignoring its impact on children.

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