Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have some final questions. The Minister is very much in favour of early intervention, preschool education and focusing resources on particular areas of major economic and social disadvantage. That is key. There would be much cross-party support in that regard. Will the Minister go back to the Cabinet and ask it to try to set out a plan over the next three or four years that could end child poverty, for example, by 2020? We have 138,000 children in that position, and that is size of the likes of Galway or Limerick. We can tackle that issue. There were 11,000 children born in 2008, the year of the crash. Many of them are in that position. We have seen a significant waste of human potential and public money in trying to deal with those children as they go further down the track. Child poverty is a major issue. I will make tackling child poverty a key issue in my election manifesto for 2016.

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