Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Child poverty has significantly increased as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. It has increased from 202,000 to 236,000 children facing enforced deprivation. The number at risk of poverty has jumped by about 20,000. We now have 89,000 children living in consistent poverty. All of those suggest a serious failure of this Government to protect children, who are our most vulnerable citizens. Maybe the worst aspect of the failure of this State to protect children is the number of children in homeless accommodation, with many more now facing that because of the raising of the eviction ban. What will the Taoiseach do to prioritise protecting children against the trauma that, in many cases, will damage them for life? It will certainly steal very significant parts of their childhood if they end up in emergency accommodation.

To give one example, the case I have raised on multiple occasions here is that of a mother who has been in emergency accommodation with her child for four years. Her child was eight when they went into emergency accommodation and is now 12. His mental health is on the floor. He cannot bring his friends around because he shares a room with his mother in the emergency accommodation. She, ironically, works with Tusla, looking after vulnerable children. Does the Taoiseach not think he has a responsibility to get children like that out of emergency accommodation and to prevent others from going into that terrible, unacceptable situation? What will he do for people like her and others in similar situations?

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