Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

The Government welcomes the publication of the fourth child poverty monitor. I acknowledge and thank the Children's Rights Alliance and its constituent members for the work they have put into this. The child poverty monitor draws on the survey on income and living conditions, SILC, 2024, which was published by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, in March 2025. It is based on a survey conducted throughout 2024 asking people about their income and consumption in 2023 and 2024. It illustrates that the consistent poverty rate for children increased from 4.8% in SILC 2023 to 8.5% in SILC 2024. While the related figure for child deprivation did fall marginally in SILC 2024, it is disappointing. I am concerned that we continue to see an increase in consistent poverty for children. We are currently working through the report. However, it is important to note that the survey data does not fully factor in the impact of budgets 2024 and 2025, both of which included the largest ever social welfare packages, including many measures that can be expected when they are fully reflected in the data to reduce child poverty.

The child poverty monitor highlights the progress that has been made in recent years, including increases in targeted family income supports, as well as important new measures, such as hot school meals, the holiday hunger pilot, free school books and the commencement of Equal Start. The solutions to child poverty identified in the report align closely with the priorities identified by the Government in our first cross-government programme plan - Child Poverty and Child Well-being 2023-2025. This includes a focus on targeted income supports, early learning and care, the cost of education, family homelessness, integrated services and participation. Due to this report and many others, including reports of the views of children themselves, we know that the policies are working. We are ready to take targeted, decisive and informed action in the context of the forthcoming budget in this space, not just in the Department of Social Protection, but across government. We are focused on reducing child poverty in measures that will be part of budget 2026.

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