Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

That is the reality for low-income families and families dependent on social welfare. We were speaking about how we might deal with this. It would be good to have a mature debate instead of hurling insults across the floor.

The proposals on support for lone parents have merit where it is suggested that there should be a special payment for children in low-income families that would be employment and family formation neutral. We should recognise the demands on children in such families by making a special payment in such cases.

There can be an argument about the cut-off point. Yesterday Fr. Seán Healy spoke about a cut-off point of €20,000, for example, which would create a poverty trap for parents earning more than that amount. Why not make the threshold higher and then taper it in order that we recognise the significant problem of child poverty?

There are 96,000 children living in consistent poverty, a scandalous figure. We need measures to target the problem in order that we can tackle it in the next couple of years. We should have done this already; now the problem needs urgent attention. We need to look at the possibility of putting in place a payment to recognise the difficulties for children living in poor families and to enable their parents to avail of it, irrespective of whether they are lone parents, co-habiting, a one or two-parent family, married or in employment. All of the agencies stated they thought that getting people back to work would solve all the problems of poverty but the new poor are the working poor. We need to target the problem of children living in poor families and to give it all our attention in the coming year. For that reason, I suggest that the Minister look at the possibility of providing a payment, payable up to an income of €30,000 or €35,000, at which point it would taper off, or even a higher level could be set. We need to focus urgently on the 96,000 children living in consistent poverty.

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