Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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4. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the progress made in tackling childhood poverty; her views on whether this progress is on track to reach the 2020 targets outlined in the national policy framework for children and young people; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38071/18]

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister to indicate what progress is being made in tackling childhood poverty, whether it is on track to reach the 2020 targets outlined in the national policy framework for children and young people, and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I have a strong personal commitment to reducing child poverty. It is a key priority for the Government. When we set ourselves a target, in 2014, of reducing consistent poverty in children by two thirds of the 2011 level, it was a challenging ambition. It would have meant lifting 70,000 children out of poverty by 2020. This baseline target against 2011 means that today we need to lift 102,000 children out of consistent poverty by 2020.

Consistent poverty means that these children are living in households with incomes below 60% of the national average income and experience deprivation according to official Government poverty indicators. We have made some modest progress. From a peak of 152,000 children in consistent poverty in 2014, we have seen a 9% decrease in 2015 of 13,680 children living in poverty. This downward trend continued with an 11.1% rate of consistent poverty in 2016, a further reduction of 6,320 or 4.5%, with a total of 132,000 children deemed to be in consistent poverty. Figures for 2017 will be available in November. However, it will be extremely difficult to reach our ambitious target of lifting more than 100,000 children out of poverty by 2020.

My Department works closely with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which has the lead role in co-ordinating strategies on poverty and the national action plan for social inclusion. With the support of the advisory council on Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, which worked with non-governmental organisations and a range of Departments, we published a valuable paper on a whole-of-Government approach to tackling child poverty last October. This identifies six priority areas for action, namely, providing universal access to general practitioner care for those aged under 18 years; reducing the cost of education; housing; affordable childcare; labour activation; and provision of in-work benefits. My focus has been on affordable childcare.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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The Better Outcomes, Brighter Future policy document sets a target of lifting 70,000 children out of poverty. The key to reducing childhood poverty is delivering effective services and supports. Despite the economic situation, Barnardos recently reported that many families and children continue to seek its support. Barnardos estimates that 138,000 children in the State live in poverty. It is very upsetting and shameful that 138,000 children are living in consistent poverty. Clearly, the work being done in this area is not enough. What discussions are taking place between the Minister and her Cabinet colleagues on this issue? Will she elaborate on her vision for addressing child poverty?

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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To have a comprehensive and sustainable impact on child poverty, future strategies must, in conjunction with cash transfers, also focus on improving service provision.

That comprises much of my vision. Doing what I describe can have a meaningful impact on reducing the cost of living for families with children. Our radical new approach to childcare is benefiting families in poverty and those at risk of falling into poverty.

Let me give the Deputy two examples from my Ministry that demonstrate how we are trying to achieve what I describe. Family A includes parents with three children and a household income of €35,000. The children are aged one, three and five. Supports provided through our new measures are a universal subsidy of €1,040 for the one year old, €2,451 for the two year old, through the free preschool scheme, and a further €2,451 for the five year old following the decision to extend the scheme to cover two programme years. Therefore, each year the value of the supports is €5,942. That is a significant benefit. It reduces the cost of living and it provides the family with more opportunity to move beyond poverty.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome what the Minister is saying but we cannot ignore the elephant in the room, namely, that there are 138,000 children in this State living in poverty and 4,000 homeless children. We all know that the better the start a child has in life, the better his or her prospects.

In the upcoming budget, we seriously need to focus on children. We need to see a budget that is proofed for child poverty and that will break the cycle of poverty. We need to see the supports the Minister talks about in place and working to prevent more children from being added to the list of children in poverty. I am confident that the Minister is a voice going into the discussions, but I sometimes wonder whether her colleagues are on the same page.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The design and implementation of the affordable childcare scheme are rooted in the fundamental principle of reducing children's poverty and its impact on households. That underlies the objectives of having affordable, accessible and quality childcare. We can see the result of our investment. It is not a question of how much money is spent but of where it goes. When talking about children in poverty or in consistent poverty, we are talking about children in families in which an individual earns 60% of the median income. This amounts to €12,227. This is tough.

I will give the Deputy another example of what we have brought forward through our initiatives. It is that of a lone parent with two children in receipt of various payments, including the one-parent family payment. That payment comes from colleagues. The family holds a medical card. For the two year old, the family receives a subsidy of €145 per week. The family has a six year old and it can avail of the after-school payment of up to €80 per week. In essence, this lone parent family with two children, aged two and six, receives €12,320 in subsidies to support its childcare costs. That is what is going on right now. That reduces children's poverty right now in the country.