Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe that if we do not set ambitious targets then we are never going to achieve them. It is an ambitious target. I have said a number of times on the record that the target under the action plan Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures is to take 90,000 children out of poverty in that period. I do not know which 30,000 children we will pick to leave behind. It is my ambition to make sure that everybody in the section of society that is currently either long-term or short-term unemployed, and who wants to work, will have a job. For those people who have difficulties in accessing the jobs market we need to make sure there are activation measures in place to assist when people find barriers or difficulties in their way. We will assist them to get in to employment and make sure that the fruits of the economy that are given back to people through social transfers are given to those who are most vulnerable, in my opinion those children and their parents who are living in consistent poverty.

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