Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

——back to school allowances, early child care supplements and equal opportunity child care programmes, etc, have been put in place. Last year, those improvements stood at well over €1 billion. Much is happening in tackling child poverty and poverty generally. The facts and figures I have make clear that it is having a major impact.

To return to the Deputy's question, I do not have a specific percentage in mind regarding a target for reducing child poverty outside the general poverty target. The general poverty targets depend on whether one uses the approaches for measuring relative poverty used by the CSO or Europe, or the more sensible approach of measuring consistent poverty. It ranges from 5% to 20% depending on the figures with which one deals. The figures available to me indicate that approximately 240,000 people have escaped from the poverty trap in the past decade or so. The percentage of those in poverty is reducing steadily.

As regards the NESC report, while I am committed to the second tier payment, it is not the only tool against child poverty. It was trumped somewhat by the child care payment of €1,000 to children under six. This skewed the pitch a little in regard to payments directly to support children. The NESC tells me that it is a complicated issue and it is continuing its work. I have told it to continue its work, and I will move quickly on its proposals. I have been tackling poverty, including child poverty, through increasing family income supplements, child benefits, clothing allowances and early child care supplements. We are not waiting for that single tool. While it will be a valuable tool, it is not the only one.

I hope the lone parent family legislation will be brought before the House in the coming months. While consultations with the various groups have been completed, it is not yet drafted. We promised to put an implementation plan together to deal with the non-income element of the reforms, such as access to education, training and child care. As well as my other proposed reforms, the groups feel strongly that those three elements must be organised. We will try to progress them together.

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