Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

In 2005, the rate of consistent poverty in Ireland was 7% of the population, of whom 12.2% were children. This proportion is still too high, but it must be judged in the context of what has been achieved over the past decade. Some 250,000 people, including children, have been lifted from poverty in Ireland based on the consistent poverty measure. The Government is determined to continue to work to achieve and, as resources permit, exceed this rate of progress in reducing child poverty in the years ahead. Budget 2007, in which I announced a range of measures costing over €240 million to benefit children and families, provides clear evidence in this regard.

These measures include combining these rates of child dependant allowance payments in a new single high rate qualified child allowance of €22 per week that will benefit over 340,000 children of families on welfare, increasing the rate of child benefit by €10 per week, which benefits over 560,000 families in respect of approximately 1,134,000 children, increasing the back to school clothing and footwear allowance by €60 and €95 and providing additional funding of €3 million in 2007 to extend the school meals programme.

Other budgetary measures, such as the €20 per week increase in the lowest social welfare rate to €185.80 and increases in the earnings thresholds for the one parent family payment and family income supplement, will also indirectly benefit children living in poorer households. For the longer term, the Government recently published the national action plan for social inclusion 2007-16. The approach, in the case of children, is designed to ensure effective co-ordination across all policy areas that support children and across all Departments and agencies responsible for implementing these policies for children by 2016.

For the purposes of the UNICEF report, which uses statistics relevant to the year 2000, the income threshold for the relative income poverty indicator is 50% of average household income. As it relates just to the income a household receives, it does not include other resources a household may have or have access to which keeps them out of actual poverty.

See this speech in context