Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

88. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if his attention has been drawn to a report on child poverty (details supplied); his plans to address the rising number of children living in consistent poverty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33108/25]

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I would like to ask the Minister for his response to the recently published child poverty monitor report and his plans to address the rising number of children living in consistent poverty. The findings of that report make for very grim reading and should focus the minds of the Government on a major change in policymaking.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The stark and ever-worsening reality of child poverty is laid bare in the child poverty monitor and wider research. The Children's Rights Alliance has issued a stark warning that unless ambitious action is taken by the Government it will take Ireland four to five generations to break the cycle of poverty. The report found that the number of children living in consistent poverty rose by a staggering by 45,107 in 2024 to almost 103,000 children. This reflects immense damage being inflicted on young lives with the potential to cause harm into adulthood. We know that adversity chain reacts across the lifespan. This is not evitable. It is not a natural disaster. It has come about through political decision-making. It is a scandalous indictment of successive Governments that are State coppers are overflowing, but at the same time we see child poverty soaring.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I wish to reiterate that we are disappointed by the latest child poverty figures. However, it is important to recognise that in 2023, when the SILC income data was collected, the Government had not yet brought in free school meals for all primary schools, which we have now done, or free school books across second level, which we have now done. Those supports will make a difference to children in poverty. It will be reflected in future figures. Similarly, the significant increases in social welfare contained in budget 2024 and the associated cost-of-living measures, which were worth more than €2.3 billion, were not included in the SILC income statistics and neither was the €2.6 billion budget 2025 social welfare package. However, we do not take that for granted.

I can assure the Deputy that our determination to reduce child poverty is reflected in the programme for Government commitments and in the work of the Child Poverty and Well-being Programme Office. Since 2023, this is based in the Department of the Taoiseach. It will take time to see the impact of the work of that unit on the data. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, independently shows that the system of social transfer has been effective in reducing child poverty.

Current child-related cash and in-kind benefits have lifted an estimated 157,000 children out of income poverty and 94,000 out of consistent poverty.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I acknowledge the supports the Minister mentioned, but we have not seen sufficiently ambitious targeted measures and strategic investment in recent budgets designed to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. It is critical, therefore, that there is a focus in budget 2026 on breaking that cycle.

The cumulative impact of continued rising costs of living has created a landslide effect for low-income families such that the very basics, such as nutritious food and keeping their homes warm, become increasingly difficult to achieve. We need to see a major scaling up of the Equal Start programme and an extension of DEIS Plus to address disadvantage at the early stage. We must also benchmark our social protection system to the cost of a minimum essential standard of living to ensure that everyone has enough to sustain a decent quality of life. All future budgets must be poverty-proofed and set against the targets of the anti-poverty strategy. At a very basic level, we need a radical change in housing policy. One in four children lives in conditions of overcrowding and more than 4,700 children living in emergency accommodation. This will require ideological change from the Minister and the Government. Not embracing that change will cause untold damage.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

It will require continuous targeted investment. We will be making choices in the context of budget 2026 regarding targeted supports for children and families. I look forward to the Deputy's support for those. In the context of the programme for Government, we will continue to retain the child poverty and well-being office in the Department of the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach made it very clear to me when I was appointed that child poverty is to be a major focus. We will continue to increase core welfare payments. We will be looking at increasing the child support payment as one of the targeted measures and looking at various pay-related benefits for parents that we discussed earlier. The programme for Government has a commitment to expand the fuel allowance to the working family payment, which will address the energy issues to which the Deputy referred. We have a focus on this within the programme for Government, which will be delivered upon. We are finalising our new child poverty target and the measures that will go with that in order to ensure that we achieve it. It will be ambitious, absolutely, but it has to be ambitious. We have to ensure that no child is left behind. I am certainly determined to ensure that will happen in the context of my Department.