Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion put forward by the Social Democrats. The issue of child poverty is something I have great interest in. As a parent, there is nothing that means more to me than the welfare of children. What parents does not want to do their best for their children? Who would not want to provide their children with a stable life in a caring environment? The reality is that many parents struggle even to put food on the table for their children. For many children, the only hot meal they receive each day or the only breakfast they will get is the one provided by their school under the school meals programme.

According to Social Justice Ireland, there are close to 700,000 people living in poverty in Ireland today, of which almost 230,000 are children. That is one in five children under 18 living in poverty in Ireland today. According to Focus Ireland, child homelessness has risen by over 250% over the past six years. The crisis of child poverty is creating a lost generation of young people. A poor standard of living and a poor quality of life has a huge impact on a child's formative years, their educational potential and, later, their employment prospects. These are the hidden costs of child poverty.

The pandemic has been a nightmare for those who are homeless and has been especially hard for children living in emergency accommodation. The stress of being homeless and under lockdown has for many had a serious detrimental effect on their mental health. Much of the child poverty we see today is the result of families struggling to survive on low incomes. We need to develop a roadmap out of poverty for families that will involve serious policy challenges for Government. Some measures we could look at for decreasing child property would be decent pay and conditions for working parents, building more social and affordable houses, keeping welfare payments in line with minimum essential standard of living rates, having affordable childcare, increasing child benefit, especially for families on low incomes, extending access to free medical care for all children, and much more. Children cannot be taken out of poverty unless and until their families are taken out of poverty.

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