Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The work of this programme on child poverty is hugely important for the future of the country. When looking at childhood poverty, the State could look at its causes, namely, single parent households, households where nobody is in employment and intergenerational poverty. Often our social protection system puts constraints and restraints on single parent families preventing these parents from going out to work and leaving them in that poverty trap. The State spends over €4.5 billion dealing with the consequences of poverty when money could be spent on targeting and eliminating poverty. What about setting up an Oireachtas committee on youth affairs to look at youth mental health, youth poverty, the youth sector, youth services and the capital programmes that could be set up to empower young people to ensure they do not fall into mental health difficulties but take the right path because if we do not look after our young, we will not look after our future?

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