Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

In the past two to three years, some fundamental decisions were taken, for example, to provide free access to school meals, which is something that was not there previously on the current scale. Free access to school books has had a significant positive impact on low-income families. The Deputy does not acknowledge that at all.

The recent SILC report is concerning. I prioritised the reduction of child poverty for the next budget. We did take measures in regard to child support payments and gave the biggest increase ever in the last budget. We are looking at a range of measures to reduce child poverty in the forthcoming budget. We will see then.

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