Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

"commits strongly to the principle that Government should ensure the best start possible for every child, underpinned by the principles of social justice, equality and fairness;

recognises the need for a renewed, target-led, cross-Departmental approach to tackling child poverty through continued collaboration on the Cabinet Committee on Social Affairs and Equality, and through a cross-Government focus on child poverty in the successor framework to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: The National Policy Framework for Children and Young People, 2014-2020 (Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures);

supports the overall work being co-ordinated by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs through the Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures process;

commits to establish and report on a new, ambitious target in respect of child poverty, within the context of the successor strategy for Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, with the aim of reducing the percentage of children under the age of 18 who are at risk of poverty and social exclusion;

welcomes:

— the recent budgets which have included measures specifically aimed at supporting families on low incomes through increases in qualified child rates, including:

— the introduction of separate rates for children aged under and over 12;

— increases in earnings disregards for One Parent Family and Jobseeker Transition payments;

— increases in the income thresholds for the Working Family Payment;

— the introduction of a maintenance disregard for the Working Family Payment; and

— an increase in the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance;

— the overall increase of €93 million or 6.2 per cent over 2019 in the 2020 Estimate Vote of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs with an additional €54 million committed to the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), and an additional €31 million for Tusla;

— the increased investment in early learning and care over the past five budgets and the Government’s commitment to ensuring that high quality developmentally-appropriate early learning and care is accessible and affordable for families throughout Ireland and reflects diversity of need; and

— the establishment of the NCS, which is the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for childcare;

recognises the Budget 2020 impact on children which included:

— a €3 increase for qualified child dependants aged 12 and over, from €37 to €40, and a €2 increase for qualified child dependants up to age 12, from €34 to €36, in all weekly payments from January 2020;

— an extension of the Hot School Meals scheme for up to 35,000 additional school children;

— the increase for working lone parents in receipt of a One-Parent Family payment or Jobseekers Transitional payment by €15 to €165 per week; and

— an increase of €10 per week in the income thresholds for families with up to three children;

welcomes the publication and ongoing implementation of First Five as a whole-of-Government strategy to improve the lives of babies, young children in the birth to five year age range, and the lives of their families;

further recognises the work of the National Advisory Council under the Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures framework and the whole-of-Government working which takes a co-ordinated and collaborative approach in tackling child poverty and emphasises the need for a combined approach to tackling child poverty levels in Ireland, involving both income supports and services;

notes the commitment to reporting on the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 – 2025, which will be implemented by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection;

acknowledges that, despite the removal of 14,000 children from consistent child poverty during the lifetime of previous Governments (between 2011 and 2018), the number of children at risk of poverty or in consistent poverty remains a significant concern — 190,000 children are currently at risk of poverty and among these children, more than 90,000 are in consistent poverty and that the previous Government’s target to reduce child poverty by 70,000 by the end of this year as indicated in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, will not be reached;

recognises that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will, without appropriate intervention, lead to an increase in the numbers of children experiencing poverty;

notes:

— the Programme for Government commitment to work across Government to address food poverty in children and ensure that no child goes hungry; and

— the Department of Education and Skills initiative of Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) aimed at tackling educational disadvantage in primary and post primary schools in the DEIS Plan 2017, which sets out the vision for future interventions on the critical area of educational disadvantage policy;

further welcomes:

— the recently commissioned baseline research on child poverty on Income, Poverty and Deprivation among children by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, which shows that child poverty rates have reduced for young children, down 12.2 per cent between 2010 and 2018, and for young adults, down 10.3 per cent, and that this research is informing Government on current approaches to ending child poverty;

— the publication of the recently commissioned research by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on children and young people, in particular, reports and reviews are welcomed on the research evidence in the areas of family and peer relationships, health and wellbeing, education (from early childhood to third level) and post-school transitions to provide insights into the potential consequences of the current crisis from infancy to early adulthood;

— that in 2018, Ireland had the lowest poverty rate among children aged 0-5 years in the European Union, however, acknowledging that those children aged 6-11 years are showing a worrying trend of increasing income poverty and consistent poverty; and

— the fact the consistent child poverty rate has dropped by 5 per cent between 2014 and 2018; and

further notes the Government’s commitment to initiate and set a new target on consistent child poverty and to include the new target in the successor cross-Government framework to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures.”

I start by thanking Deputy Whitmore for bringing this motion forward. It is absolutely crucial that we take this time to discuss the issue of child poverty and how we respond to it as a country. Over the last few months, we have seen unprecedented turmoil as a result of Covid-19 and we are now facing into a recession. As Minister, I am acutely aware of the risk the economic downturn poses to children and, particularly, those living in or at risk of poverty.

While we have made progress in recent years, we know that poverty continues to steal childhoods and children's futures. Poverty affects not only children's material living conditions but also their sense of belonging, their well-being and their physical health. Every child should have the best start to life. It is not acceptable to me or to any Member of this House that children continue to live in poverty in Ireland today.

The effects of child poverty are both immediate and long-term. Growing up in a marginalised and disadvantaged community experiencing intergenerational cycles of poverty, educational disadvantage and unemployment seriously hinders the opportunities of a child or young person.

Those worst affected by child poverty are those with the least access to power to make their voices heard. Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, we have heard many representative groups and trade organisations speak on behalf of their members about the genuine and devastating impacts the pandemic has had upon them. However, so much of the suffering caused by child poverty happens silently behind closed doors to children and families who are marginalised and vulnerable. When we look at how we live with Covid-19 and what kind of country we want to create when we emerge from the pandemic, we will fall short if we focus on the economic health of the country only. Therefore, it is my absolute priority and that of this Government to ensure these most vulnerable members of our society are protected during the pandemic but also during the lifetime of this Government.

Any measure we take in regard to child poverty has to be based on the strongest possible evidence. This is why since I was appointed as Minister, the Department has published two pieces of research looking at child poverty. The first is a statistical baseline analysis of the prevalence of child poverty in the country and the second looks at the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young people. This second report found that school closures and the lack of face-to-face engagement with peers is having a direct effect on the lives of children and young people. The impact of the pandemic will be felt most by young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special educational needs. Parental job loss and the possibility of long-term unemployment will affect children's well-being through greater stress within the family but also as result of loss of income. As the pandemic continues and the restrictions remain in place, these risks become more pronounced and demand a stronger policy response.

With the challenges presented by Covid-19 in mind, the programme for Government makes commitments aimed at addressing child poverty. The Government will work to end food poverty and a key component of this will be the school meals programme. With the co-operation of our schools around the country this programme continued during the summer months this year in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Additionally, the programme for Government commits to initiating a new anti-poverty social inclusion and community development action plan underpinning sound community development practices and reflecting a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will build on the existing sustainable inclusive and empowered communities strategy to support the community and voluntary sector in Ireland.

There are also a range of measures that will speak to the wider mission of improving the well-being of children, extending free GP care to more children, abolishing in-hospital charges for children and extending free dental care to more children.

The programme for Government also commits to the development of a specific youth homelessness strategy so we can end the practice that previous Deputies alluded to earlier of housing hundreds of children in emergency accommodation such as hotels.

The programme for Government also commits to the creation of a successor strategy to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures. In 2014, the then Government launched Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, which provided a national policy framework for children and young people. This framework recognised that poverty, substandard housing and social exclusion have a significant impact on a child's life outcomes and we needed to redouble our efforts to reduce these inequalities. Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures set a target of reducing consistent poverty for children by two-thirds of the 2011 level. It was a challenging target. The target aimed that by 2020 the number of children in consistent poverty would be reduced to 37,000 children at most. The figures available for 2018 show that the consistent poverty rate for children had decreased from 9.3% in 2011 to 7.7%, a reduction of 1.6%. This corresponds to a reduction of 14,000 children living in consistent poverty between 2011 and 2018. Despite the progress that was made, it is clear at this point that the target set in 2014 will not be achieved. I am deeply conscious that these are not just numbers we are speaking about. These are children facing hunger, deprivation and all the physical and mental affects and impacts we have spoken about today. This is happening to children all over our country.

As the new Minister with responsibility for children, I am committed to establishing a new and ambitious target to reduce child poverty. This target will form the central element of the successor strategy to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures. However, an ambitious target on its own is of little value without the means, the structures and the will and drive to meet it. As part of the successor strategy that I will be bringing forward, I will establish new infrastructure within my Department and across Government for the delivery of our child poverty reduction goals. This new strategy will contain mid-term targets and monitoring mechanisms such that we are better able to measure progress and address any potential slippage. I look forward to engaging with Deputy Whitmore and members of the joint Oireachtas committee on children, equality, disability, integration and youth to examine the best mechanisms to ensure the delivery of these goals. I agree with Deputy that we need to work across party lines on this issue.

Central to the success of any target on child poverty is a whole-of-Government approach. Such an approach to tackling child poverty has been adopted, building on the lifecycle approach adopted in the previous national action plan for social inclusion. There is clear evidence about what works in terms of reducing child poverty. Ireland's historical approach to tackling child poverty has focused on cash transfers and this approach has resulted in Ireland consistently ranking as one of the top performing EU countries in the poverty reduction effect of social transfers. However, despite the relevant of success of social transfers, in order to have a comprehensive and sustainable impact on child poverty, newer strategies must focus on improving service provision. Doing so can have a meaningful impact on reducing the cost of living for families with children. The diverse nature of these challenges demonstrate why a whole-of-Government approach is essential to tackling child poverty effectively. I agree with the Deputy's assertion that we need to strengthen oversight.

Earlier this year, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection published the roadmap for social inclusion and identified child poverty as a cross-sectoral issue that needs to be addressed. Officials in my Department continue to work closely with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. I recently met the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, on the issue of child poverty and on initiating discussions on the development of the new poverty targets in the successor to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures. I welcome the support today of the Department through the contribution of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien.

Government leadership can and has been supported by the experience and expertise of members of civil society groups, academia and other Government-funded organisations. My Department always engages positively with our partners. This has involved close co-operation with the National Advisory Council, which is currently chaired by Tanya Ward, the chief executive officer of the Children's Rights Alliance. The council brings together a diverse range of specialists in children and young people's policy and provision. It provides advice and recommendations on child poverty to me as Minister. Shortly after I was appointed Minister, I had the opportunity to meet the council. It was the first external organisation that I met and in our discussions that day we focused on the issue of child poverty.

Earlier this month, I visited Hill Street Family Resource Centre in the north inner city, where the project manager showed me around and introduced me to some of the parents who use the centre. The breadth of what they do there is extraordinary, from adult education to parenting support to child care. The complexity of the work and the compassion with which it is done is deeply impressive. Each of the parents I met spoke about the support and sense of community they find there. What I heard and saw in Hill Street underlines the complexity of child poverty but also that solutions exist. As a Government, we will lead on and progress a strategy to reduce child poverty in conjunction with our partners in the non-governmental organisation, NGO, sector, civil society and, I hope, with other parties. We are committed to setting and achieving an ambitious target to reduce poverty, underpinned by the necessary resources and structures. We will not be found wanting in our determination to achieve this.

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