Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the context of children, the programme for Government refers to "an opportunity to change our approach from expensive reactive interventions to proactive supports and long term planning starting from birth". This commitment must be a long way from being realised in light of the report in today's edition of The Irish Timesby Kitty Holland about the long queue of families, most of them mothers with babies and toddlers, endeavouring to access the Capuchin Day Centre in order to obtain help with the very basic necessities of life. The photograph that accompanies the article tells 1,000 very depressing stories. Over 600 mothers are registered with the Capuchin Day Centre to get free infant formula and nappies. They travel from the city centre and from homeless centres in Drogheda and Dundalk. Many are accommodated in their parents' homes and so on. These people are not included in the statistics relating to homelessness but they are living in very stressful circumstances nonetheless. In line with comments made earlier, there is an urgent requirement to focus on the needs of homeless children and to reduce the necessity for the Capuchin Day Centre to have to continue to intervene at the level and scale at which it is intervening in order to prevent poverty and destitution. The State should be investing more.

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