Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that:

— reducing child poverty and ensuring every child has the best start in life are key priorities for this Government and will be a core focus of Budget 2026;

— the Government has prioritised the reduction of child poverty through the establishment of the dedicated Child Poverty and Well-Being Programme Office, ensuring cross-departmental coordination to address the root causes of poverty affecting children and families;

— the increases in child poverty rates, as reported in March 2025 by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in its Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2024, are disappointing, until the release of this data, child consistent poverty in Ireland had been on a downward trend, peaking in 2013 at 12.7 per cent and falling to its lowest level in 2023 at 4.8 per cent;

— the CSO data is based on 2023 income data, and therefore does not reflect the Government's full response to the cost of living that were contained in Budget 2024 and Budget 2025;

— overall, the last two budgets each contained the largest social welfare packages in the history of the State and combined, invested €4.9 billion in communities across the country;

— this included, unprecedented increases in core social welfare rates, the largest ever increase in the Child Support Payment, an increase in the Working Family Payment, and increasing the number of people who are eligible for the Fuel Allowance;

— none of these increases are included in the latest CSO data, nor has the Government's significant investment in non-income supports for children and families during this time, such as the significant expansion of School Meals Scheme and free schoolbooks;

— the School Meals Scheme has now been expanded to enable the roll-out to all primary schools, with 3,200 schools and 550,000 children now eligible;

— in addition, over 23,000 children are availing of cold lunches, while a Holiday Meals pilot project took place this summer with 914 schools providing meals to 68,000 children;

— the Government has expanded the roll-out of free schoolbooks for all children in primary education, and more recently this has been expanded to Junior Cycle;

— the Government have announced a new Child Poverty Target of 3 per cent or less, of consistent poverty, to be achieved by the end of 2030;

— meeting this Child Poverty Target will require sustained investment over the lifetime of this Government and beyond;

— the Government is investing almost €6.8 billion in 2025 to support the delivery of social, affordable and Cost Rental homes, housing supply has increased significantly with almost 32,800 social homes delivered between 2022 to 2024;

— Budget 2025 provided an allocation of €303 million for the delivery of homeless services, an increase of €61 million or 25 per cent on the 2024 Budget allocation, in addition, €25 million in capital funding is supporting the delivery of high quality transitional and emergency accommodation for individuals experiencing homelessness;

— the Government recently announced that an additional €50 million for housing acquisitions will prioritise families in long-term homelessness;

— the Government has committed €325 million to support a second-hand acquisitions programme in 2025, allowing local authorities to target priority categories of housing needs, including families in long-term homelessness;

— the Government approved an extension of the 9 per cent Value Added Tax rate currently applied to gas and electricity to October 2025, at an estimated cost of €85 million; and

— a cross Government National Energy Affordability Taskforce has been established to identify, assess, and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability; and

acknowledges that:

— the Government is committed to further progress, building on the initiatives already introduced, targeting those most at risk, and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to thrive in a fairer and more inclusive society; and

— the Government will utilise Budget 2026 and future budgets, to prioritise measures aimed at tackling child poverty and reducing homelessness.".

The amendment outlines our determination to drive down child poverty rates and records the progress that has been made to date on this critical issue. I think we all agree that tackling child poverty and homelessness is not merely a matter of policy, but a national imperative that is rooted in our values as a Republic. The cost of inaction is measured not in economic terms but, much more importantly, in the futures of those children and in the well-being of the families across Ireland. Any child who grows up in poverty faces barriers that limit his or her potential, from poor educational outcomes and diminished health to reduced opportunities for participation in school or community life. Where unaddressed, these challenges will perpetuate cycles of disadvantage that stretch across generations.

At this point, I will apologise on behalf of the Minister for housing. He will be with us but he is currently opening 290 new homes for Tuath Housing in Citywest. He will join the debate to deal with the issues Deputy Wall has dealt with. I have already given my apologies to Deputy Wall at a previous commitment.

The Government is determined to break the cycle. We will strive to create a society that gives all children the opportunity to succeed and to maximise their potential. It is this commitment to tackle child poverty that the Taoiseach outlined at the child poverty and well-being summit held on 11 September. The Taoiseach has made it very clear that tackling child poverty and homelessness is a key priority for this Government. Speaking at that summit, Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization said that children are our most precious resource and that we cannot leave children behind. As articulated in our programme for Government, child poverty is not inevitable. Dr. Ryan also told us that day that there are no easy solutions to child poverty, which is complex and multidimensional, and that the only way to ensure our children feel they belong and that they can thrive is through shared commitment and targeted and sustained action over a sustained and continual process. He also mentioned that there can never be an end to this effort. Therefore, as a society, we must continually strive to tackle child poverty. While difficult, it is an immensely important challenge that we must and will achieve. The Government is absolutely committed to breaking the vicious cycle of child poverty in a sustained and continuing process.

Reducing child poverty and ensuring every child has the best start in life will be a core focus of budget 2026 and throughout the lifetime of this Government. Our determination to have a decisive impact on child poverty is reflected in our programme for Government commitments and in our actions since taking office. The Government established a child poverty and well-being programme office in the Department of the Taoiseach in 2023. This ensures cross-departmental co-ordination to address the complex issue of child poverty. In addition, on 10 September, we published our commitment to a new and ambitious child poverty target. This target is 3% or less in consistent poverty, to be achieved by the end of 2030. The goal is ambitious and reflects a reduction of 5.5 percentage points from the current child consistent poverty rate of 8.5%. It will require sustained investment across the whole of Government as part of a continual process. In addition to that child poverty target, the child poverty and well-being programme office is developing a dashboard of indicators, which will allow for the measurement of child poverty and well-being in a holistic manner across all of Government. In the years ahead, this new target will guide those cross-government policies and will ensure that investment is targeted at those who need it most so that we can lift as many children as possible out of poverty.

A whole-of-government approach means that, along with targeted income measures, we will focus on concrete and measurable actions in respect of areas such as housing, employment, childcare, health and education. These cross-government actions will be outlined in the successor to the national poverty strategy, the roadmap for social inclusion 2026-2030, which is currently being developed by my Department. This will be launched in the first half of 2026 and will, for the first time, have a specific focus on child poverty.

Our commitment to reducing child poverty is reflected in investment in concrete support to the families and children who are most in need. The last two budgets, those for 2024 and 2025, contained the largest social welfare packages in the history of the State. Combined, they invested €4.9 billion in communities across the country. They included increases in core social welfare rates, including child benefit. They also included the largest ever increase in the child support payment and increases in the working family payment, targeted measures that reach the families with children who are most in need. The number eligible for fuel allowance was also increased.

The Government has also invested heavily in non-income services for families and children. We have significantly reduced childcare fees through the national childcare scheme. I tell Deputy Kenny that we have expanded the hot meals scheme to all primary schools. There are difficulties with one company and its linked companies but others are standing in. Officials in my Department are working to fix that at the moment. There are a number of parliamentary questions on it tomorrow and we will go through it in detail. That is a €320 million investment on the part of the Government to address child food poverty in particular. Those glitches cannot be allowed to hide a very important programme. We delivered a holiday meals pilot project this summer, which provided meals to 68,000 children in 914 schools over the summer holidays. Free schoolbooks have also been rolled out to all children in primary school. In fairness, Deputy O'Reilly has championed the need for us to look at that scheme with a view to laptops and iPads. That is something I am anxious to do.

The increases in child poverty rates reported in March 2025 by the Central Statistics Office in its survey on income and living conditions for 2024 are very disappointing. Until the release of this data, child consistent poverty had been on a downward trend, peaking in 2013 at 12.7% and falling to its lowest level in 2023, at 4.8%. That trend was reversed and the figure increased to 8.5% in the CSO survey on income and living conditions 2024. It is important to remember that the data collected under the SILC has a time lag. This latest data is based on 2023 income and therefore does not reflect the full response to child poverty in recent years including the measures I have just referred to. In budget 2025, the weekly personal rate increases to social welfare payments were expanded. We specifically invested €167 million in children through the largest ever increase in the child support payment, €8 per week for children aged 12 years and older.

With regard to budget 2026, we have made clear the importance of directing support to families with children who need it most. We know from research previously undertaken, which was referred to by Deputy Sherlock, that the most effective means of achieving this objective is through established targeted measures. Those measures include the child support and working family payments, which is why these will be a priority in the forthcoming budget. The payments provide targeted assistance directly linked to household income, supporting low-income families with children, and are paid to qualified households in addition to the universal child benefit.

As has been discussed, we have a programme for Government commitment to explore a targeted child benefit payment and to examine the interaction this would have with existing targeted supports. We are continuing to examine this and other approaches to ensure resources are directed at families with children who are most in need of support. There is a wide range of possible approaches. We want to ensure that all are given full consideration and to determine which will have the maximum impact in reducing child poverty. It is vital that any new approach introduced does not have unintended consequences that would leave those families and children we are trying to help worse off in the medium term. We know from discussions with the ESRI that some proposals for a second tier of child benefit would not see all affected families better off.

Some families could see a reduction in the support they receive under some of those proposed models. While that exploratory work is under way to ensure that we do not end up in that situation, and therefore a second tier payment will not be announced as part of budget 2026, specific targeted supports will be in place through the programmes I have already mentioned.

The Government fully recognises that supporting families with children on low income with housing costs, as well as supporting families in homelessness to secure sustainable housing is key to reducing child poverty. Preventing and reducing homelessness among families is a cornerstone of tackling child poverty and the Minister, Deputy Browne, will deal with that when he speaks in the debate.

On energy costs, the Government fully recognises the pressures that these costs have on families with children on low income. As a result, we have approved an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied to gas and electricity to October 2025, at an estimated cost of €85 million and the cross-government energy affordability task force has been asked to identify further measures.

These are priority issues for this Government. The Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, will deal with more later. They will be tackled over the lifetime of this Government. We are determined that we will reduce child poverty and we will make lasting and sustainable progress to support children across our country.

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