Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party and I wholeheartedly support this excellent motion and the recommendations therein.

The European Court of Auditors recently published a special report, Combating Child Poverty - Better Targeting of Commission Support. Mr. Tony Murphy, the Irish member of the court, was clear in his messaging about the European Union's response to eliminating child poverty. He stated:

Child poverty is a serious issue in the EU. Without a sustained and targeted action, the current unacceptable level is unlikely to decrease. It is becoming more critical because of the expected impact of the pandemic.

Those are stark words and bear closer scrutiny.

The report stated:

EU legislation does not target funding directly at combating child poverty. Both the Commission and the Member States visited could not quantify the amount of funds allocated to projects directly tackling child poverty and therefore could not assess their effectiveness.

By any standard, that is a damning indictment of us, as a country, and successive Governments, including the one of which I was a part. We now need radical action to ensure that this issue is addressed.

There were presentations during the week by the European Court of Auditors and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The central message from Mr. Murphy, the Irish member of the court, was that because EU instruments targeted at eliminating child poverty are not legally binding, it has become difficult to measure the true impact of measures intended to eliminate child poverty. The EU target of removing 20 million citizens from poverty has no sub-target for children and no adjusted target has been set even though it has been clear for some time that this objective will not be met. Mr. Murphy's critique, if I can use that word, was not just of the Commission for failing to pressure member states, but of member states themselves for being deliberately obtuse in drafting policy, interpreting directives and reporting results. Ms Karen Kiernan, chief executive officer of One Family, bore that out when she said that was her experience and that it applies to Ireland.

The policy discussion during the Society of St. Vincent de Paul presentation included policymakers from New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland. They discussed how best to respond to child poverty in an increasingly uncertain economic landscape. Ms Kristie Carter, director of the child poverty unit in New Zealand, spoke about the child poverty unit in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's department. The Prime Minister has a child poverty unit within her department. That is the level of importance that is ascribed to this issue in New Zealand. We can learn from that. I note that the Minister with responsibility for children is here today and I accept his bona fidesbut the example of New Zealand shows what can be done when political parentage, if you will, is given to this issue such that it is elevated to the equivalent level of the Department of the Taoiseach. That is when one starts seeing real action because that is when resources are made available. Policymakers, people who are charged with implementing policy, and stakeholders can then see real results from the efforts to eliminate child poverty.

Ms Carter highlighted that the creation of the child poverty unit was crucially accompanied by cutting red tape for non-governmental organisations, NGOs, as well as increasing funding. The logic was simply that if this was not made a priority, targets would be missed. That sums up the Irish scenario on the issue. It seems reasonable to request then that in addition to reporting, measuring and setting targets, the Government provides the necessary funding as happens in New Zealand.

We endorse the setting of legislative targets because we feel strongly it would guarantee accountability. Where there are nebulous targets, there is nebulous policy-making. Where people must account for themselves and their actions, one starts to see real results. The two events that took place this week were, arguably, very prescient because they dealt directly with the substance of the motion before us today. We are here again in the Dáil talking about these issues, and there is a working out of these issues when we talk about child poverty. All Members of the Oireachtas have countless examples of constituents who are suffering because of a lack of proper income but also because, increasingly, children do not have access to the basic services they require. From an answer to a parliamentary question I tabled this week on access for children and the number of children waiting for occupational therapy through the HSE, I learned there are now 21,000 children who have been waiting for up to one year. I have stated before in this House that there is something illogical about the fact that occupational therapists, front-line workers, are being deployed to do testing, swabbing and tracing when any reasonable non-medical person could be trained to do so. The net effect of the loss of an occupational therapy service is that children, by and large, suffer. We need to start producing logical public policy, particularly health policy, in respect of children. The lack of such policy leads to greater impoverishment. I use the term "impoverishment" broadly. We support the motion.

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