Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It is generally accepted that one in nine children suffers from consistent poverty? Does the Minister accept this figure? Does he accept that a far wider cohort of children suffers from additional elements of poverty in so far as they are denied access to quality public services? I refer to those who struggle to survive on low incomes but who are unable to gain access to health services or, for example, to the 1,000 children in the Dublin area who are homeless and whose families cannot gain access to decent quality housing accommodation. There are two elements to child poverty, namely, income poverty and poverty that comes about through the denial of access to services.

As for income policy, the Government has neglected the subject of qualified children's payments for a number of years. I refer to the approximately 340,000 children of adults who are entirely dependent on social welfare. What is the Minister's policy to improve their income? Is he committed to the earlier promise to bring the rate of qualified child payment up to €30 this year? This is being demanded by a number of campaigning groups. Is he committed to an earlier proposal to consider combining family income supplement and qualified child payment, as was promised under Sustaining Progress? It appears that little progress has been made in this regard.

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