Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy O'Gorman. I appreciate his sincerity and his work on this, including in his previous role. The Taoiseach and I have both said there will be a particular focus on child poverty in this budget. The child poverty unit is doing good work for us on that. We have had a Cabinet committee meeting which had an initial discussion on the matter. We should be endeavouring to tackle child poverty regardless of who the child is, where the child is from or where the child is living, once the child is residing here in our State. I am certainly open to considering that proposal but the specific measures will be a matter for budget day.

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