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

To have a comprehensive and sustainable impact on child poverty, future strategies must, in conjunction with cash transfers, also focus on improving service provision.

That comprises much of my vision. Doing what I describe can have a meaningful impact on reducing the cost of living for families with children. Our radical new approach to childcare is benefiting families in poverty and those at risk of falling into poverty.

Let me give the Deputy two examples from my Ministry that demonstrate how we are trying to achieve what I describe. Family A includes parents with three children and a household income of €35,000. The children are aged one, three and five. Supports provided through our new measures are a universal subsidy of €1,040 for the one year old, €2,451 for the two year old, through the free preschool scheme, and a further €2,451 for the five year old following the decision to extend the scheme to cover two programme years. Therefore, each year the value of the supports is €5,942. That is a significant benefit. It reduces the cost of living and it provides the family with more opportunity to move beyond poverty.

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