John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For years I have been calling on the Government to equality and poverty proof the budget and to bring together the relevant Departments and agencies in a joined-up manner to inform State policy and work in collaboration to achieve change and social justice for all of those living in poverty and social exclusion. The Government is aware of the need to do what is proposed in this motion. The problem is that it does not want to know the result of such an analysis.

Departmental analysis of last year's budget states: "Households worst affected by the measures being proposed arethose with children, in particular lone parent families." In actual fact, the latest figures show that 16.4% of one-parent families, as compared to 6.9% of the rest of the population, live in consistent poverty and the Government is doing little to address this. Figures also show that half of the people living in below-average private rented accommodation are at risk of poverty, a figure which is undoubtedly attributable to the cap on the rent allowance that is causing such despair for people.

The Government is in no doubt as to the strong correlation between its policies and the disproportionate decline in well-being among our more vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly and the disabled. It is aware that children are going to school hungry. This country's child poverty rate, as measured by EUROSTAT, increased from 18% to 28.6% from 2008 to 2012, a net increase of more than 130,000 poor children in Ireland. The policies of this Government have placed us close to the bottom of a UNICEF list in terms of the impact of the recession in Ireland on children as compared with 41 developed countries. That is shameful. The same UNICEF report states that 16.1% of 15 to 24 year olds in Ireland are not in any form of education, employment or training. They are, according to UNICEF, "a generation cast aside". Cuts to front-line supports and community based training initiatives by the Government ensure that these young people will grow into adulthood feeling marginalised and excluded from mainstream society.

In regard to the Minister of State's commentary around helping the most vulnerable, the UNICEF report, entitled "Children of the Recession", states that Irish families with children have in five years lost the equivalent of ten years of income progress yet other countries beholden to the IMF during the same period did a far better job at protecting their children. Particularly alarming was how quickly standards slipped. According to a UNICEF report published four years ago, Ireland was one of the top ten best places to be a child.

However, political decisions to pay billions of euro back to unsecured bondholders had the knock-on effect of decimating health, education, housing and welfare support. Clearly, the well-being of our most vulnerable was not at the top of the Government's priorities during the economic recession. We are being told the recession is over but the question is whether the Government will be shamed by the international evidence as presented by UNICEF into changing its approach by independently evaluating the social impact of previous policies, recognising the poverty threshold in this country and stepping in so that generations of families are not doomed to live forever beyond the line.

Studies all over the world have consistently shown that children living in poverty are more likely to become impoverished adults and have poor children, creating a sustained inter-generational cycle of poverty. If the Government is not prepared to address the income gap between the basic social welfare rate and the recognised income required for an adequate standard of living, it is condemning further generations of Irish children to a lifetime of endemic poverty. It is creating another generation of children in care, of early school leavers and of unemployed. All children have a right to a better future. The Government has a moral duty to ensure they are given every chance. Surely supporting this motion would be a monumental step in that direction.

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