Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will again put on record my thanks to the Local Link service. It has made a difference in rural communities but there is no doubt it can do more, particularly in areas like Ballitore, which is a small village on the outskirts of my hometown. However, there is a lack of services coming from that particular village, which, as the Minister said, is impacting on those who are seeking education and employment or just seeking social interaction. It is having a direct impact, as I know, on children in that area. It is not just there; there are other villages as well.

The Minister mentioned SICAP - as I said, I pay tribute to those who work in the area - and stated that child poverty was not an explicit target. I ask that it become an explicit target for SICAP. That is most important if we are to be serious about tackling an almost doubling of figures of child poverty in this State. SICAP should be entrusted with developing rural communities to set and see child poverty figures. It should become a specific target of what it does day in, day out. That is a necessary step forward for SICAP and what it will do if we are to become serious about tackling that almost doubling of the child poverty figures the CSO has recently given us.

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