Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the child poverty unit and the report that it issued. I met the Society of St. Vincent de Paul last week. It reported that in conjunction with the elimination of fees for school books and the increase of €100 in the back-to-school allowance, it had seen a 20% reduction in requests for assistance in regard to the return to school. It is an example of how Government measures can assist with child poverty.

The Taoiseach is aware that we have many measures in place. These include the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, the area-based child poverty initiatives and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien’s empowering community projects. However, many of these need an area focus. There are 160 electoral districts in this country of 3,500 with a Pobal deprivation index of minus 15. There must be area-based interventions by senior decision-makers including the HSE, Tusla and the Department of Education, on the ground and there must be an end to the one-size-fits-all approach to the those 160 electoral districts with persistent and consistent poverty. It is within the Government’s power to try to eliminate child poverty and those places that are severely impacted by it. One such example is the roll-out of the north-east inner city model for multidisciplinary supports in schools in the Department of Education. That Department is an example of an entity that, were it to be given a local focus, could respond to a local need in one area and similar ones across the country and could change the way it does business to support children in poverty.

I have been quite happy to lobby on behalf of electoral districts in my area that need support but it should not be about lobbying. If an area goes into a Pobal deprivation index of minus 15 or minus 20, there should be an automatic range of packages put in place. We should not tolerate any part of Ireland having a deprivation index of minus 33.

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