Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Collins again. She represents the concerns and interests of her people very well. It is important that she is able to do that and I hear the concerns. Over the course of the years I have been working, I have had the opportunity to go to Inchicore and to meet some of the people there. I have come into contact with some of the real challenges which the Deputy has identified but I have also come into contact with the extraordinary group of professionals there and seen the community spirit and the resilience of both the people living there and those working there. I commend them on that resilience and spirit. I mean that. It has inspired a lot of my own work in other settings.

The report which the Deputy has provided to myself and the officials, which was prepared by a range of professionals in the area who worked together to put forward their case, is really important. Ultimately, the only way an area can change, particularly in respect of the primary issues which the Deputy identified towards the end of her contribution, and the only way it can challenge, reduce, shift and change generational poverty, is for all the different groups to work together. I have some understanding of how challenging that is. The fact that they have come together in this regard is very impressive.

The Deputy described the level of disadvantage in terms of child poverty. She is probably aware that, as part of a cross-Government approach, we have tried to identify new ways to work on this very challenging social issue. We have come to the conclusion that a lot of it is about investing in services as well as increasing opportunities for the employment of parents. I have told the Deputy about many of the different ways in which I have made additional investment in services throughout the short tenure of my ministry. At the same time, I have given her national figures. The Deputy is looking at her constituency. She has asked me to come and see the area and I will do so.

See this speech in context