Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of child poverty. The working family payment and other targeted measures such as the increase for a qualified child are specifically designed to assist with that. We have introduced other measures as well. We recently announced changes to three initiatives to assist families with children. The back-to-school costs package is worth a total of €67 million. As a result, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance is being increased by €100 for each eligible child under the scheme. In addition, the school meals programme is being extended to a further 310 schools that were designated as DEIS schools - delivering equality of opportunity in schools - in March. Students availing of the school transport scheme will not be charged fees for the next academic year.

We will look at the working family payment. In another piece of research published by the Department and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, earlier this year the working family payment was identified as being particularly effective in alleviating poverty levels, so we will look at that payment.

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