Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Exactly. However, 163,936 children in this country still live in consistent poverty according to the data presented last year. These are children without access to two warm coats and if their shoes are damaged, their parents are unable to replace. Regardless of whether the child goes hungry, there is certainly an adult in his or her house who does.

I welcomed the fact that when the Taoiseach assumed office a couple of months ago, he said he would take this issue seriously. I had a funny image in my mind because he then had a meeting in Davos with Keir Starmer where they were going to talk about child poverty.

Child poverty is corrosive to the human condition. While I understand the measures the Minister is taking, income supports are what we need. I appreciate that welfare supports went up by €12 in the last budget but it is not enough. When we will see income supports going up towards the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, so that welfare supports in this country are not based below a line that automatically places not only the child but his or her family into poverty? Until we address that, all the targeted measures are not going to come to much.

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