Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their contributions. Deputy Farrell raised the children's disability network teams. They will not specifically fall under the remit of the new unit. They will fall to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, with the transfer of disability functions to her and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which will happen on 1 March, but it is relevant to the well-being aspect of the unit's work. I hear the frustration that parents have and endure when it comes to not being able to get assessments of need and particularly when it comes to not being able to get the treatments and therapies that their children need. I had the chance in the past few weeks to spend some time in Barnardos in my constituency and at family resource centres in Kildare and Newbridge. I recognise the good value that we get from the services they provide. It is money well spent and the return on investment is good. We will invest more in these areas in the years to come.

The hot school meals is a great programme. I am a big fan of it. I do not know the details of St. Aidan's and why it is no longer part of the programme. If Deputy Paul Murphy wants to send me the details, I will certainly have it looked into. As Deputies will be aware, the roadmap for social inclusion is our national strategy for poverty reduction and improved social inclusion. It includes a specific chapter on helping children and families with the goal of reducing child poverty and ensuring that all families can participate fully in society. The roadmap incorporates the national child poverty target identified in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the national framework for children and young people, which requires a 66% reduction in the number of children in consistent poverty by the end of 2021. We had been going in the right direction in that regard in recent years, but the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis that has followed has thrown that, which, unfortunately, will show up in the numbers quite soon.

The roadmap includes two commitments specifically relating to child poverty targets. One is to establish and report on a new target in respect of child poverty to improve Ireland's ranking from 20th to the top five for the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, SILC, reporting year of 2025. This will be the equivalent of reducing the percentage of children under 18 at risk of poverty and social exclusion from approximately 24% to 16%. The roadmap includes continued reporting on progress on the national target for reducing the number of children experiencing consistent poverty by the end of 2020 and setting a new target for the period to the end of 2025, consistent with any revised EU targets.

The aim, as I mentioned earlier, is to have the unit established by the end of March with a clear work plan. Preparatory work is under way in that regard. Further work and engagement will inform the scope and programme of work for the unit. The aim is to ensure the unit brings added value, as well as strategic leadership and enhanced accountability, to the child poverty agenda and makes a tangible difference to the lives of children and families.

The issue of a public model of childcare has been mentioned. I will have to speak to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, about that. Perhaps the right way to approach it, if it has not been done, is with the pilot of a few publicly-provided childcare facilities to see how they work, how they compare to the private sector with regard to quality, cost, reliability and so on, and perhaps take it from there.

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