Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

— the number of children in consistent poverty nearly doubled in 2024 to 8.5 per cent, rising by over 45,000 in one year to 104,780, up from 4.7 per cent in 2023;

— the research by Economic and Social Research Institute shows one in five children, over 225,000, live in families below the poverty line when housing costs are accounted for;

— the cost-of-living crisis is deepening with annualised food price inflation in August up by 5 per cent;

— Ireland already has some of the most expensive energy costs in the world, and suppliers are now increasing their rates by over 12 per cent for the winter ahead;

— over 300,000 households are in arrears on electricity bills, and nearly 175,000 in gas arrears, while the moratorium on disconnections only covers the Christmas period;

— there were 5,014 homeless children in emergency accommodation at the end of July, an increase of 14 per cent in a year;

— the reduced funding available for the Tenant in-Situ Scheme is not enough to meet demand, and local authorities do not have sufficient resourcing for the purchase and repurposing of vacant and derelict properties; and

— the School Meals Scheme has been rolled out across primary schools, but remains unavailable to far too many children in schools not signed up to the scheme;

recognises that:

— budgets are about choices, and regrets that the Government intends to spend over €630 million a year to reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on food and catering hospitality, while the number of children living in consistent poverty and homelessness continues to increase; and

— the reduction in VAT:

— will be of most benefit to those businesses with the highest turnover;

— will not be passed on to customers;

— will not be reflected in better pay and conditions for workers; and

— will not address the underlying issues facing the hospitality sector; and

calls for in Budget 2026:

— the €630 million cost of an untargeted VAT reduction, instead be committed to measures to relieve child poverty and homelessness, the improvement of public services, and reduction in waiting lists for disability and health services;

— the urgent implementation of a targeted rate of child benefit, a new child income support payment - to address the shocking rise in child poverty;

— a ban on the eviction of children into homelessness, and legislation to prioritise the housing needs of homeless families;

— the removal of the restrictions introduced in March 2025 on the Tenant in-Situ Scheme so it is demand led, and the resourcing of local authorities to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction; and

— the introduction of targeted energy payments, an extension of the moratorium on disconnections, an increase to the Fuel Allowance payment and widened eligibility to include those on the Working Family Payment.

This Government is presiding over record levels of child poverty and homelessness. There are now over 5,000 homeless children in Ireland and one in five children or more than 225,000 children live in families who have incomes below the poverty line. Over 300,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills and almost 175,000 families are in arrears on their gas bills, not to mention that food prices have risen by more than 5%. Let me be clear. When over 5,000 children are homeless, we are no longer in a housing crisis, but an emergency and we need to act like it.

Instead of emergency measures to address spiralling child poverty and homelessness, the Government is hellbent on wasting more than €600 million on a non-targeted VAT rate reduction for the big hospitality lobby. Just over half of that money could, as the Minister will be aware, abolish the carer's means-test in the morning. The Government has utterly failed the children of Ireland. Childhood lasts a lifetime and unless we take radical action, we are likely to see the impact of Government failure and inaction on future generations.

Budget 2026 must be a cost-of-living budget. We cannot return to the previous "Late Late Show" style of one-for-everyone-in-the-audience budgets. The Labour Party's motion today puts forward real and meaningful measures that would help to support many working families who are struggling to keep the lights on and food on the table. We need a radical reset to address child poverty and homelessness. We need a policy reset that lifts households out of poverty and provides a basic standard of leaving so that no household is left behind. It is more than disappointing that the Government will oppose this motion. I sincerely hope that many on the Government side of the House will take a good long look at themselves and at exactly where their priorities lie.

Day in, day out, almost 40 struggling families sit in my office or contact my office because they are unable to find housing. They are worried about their children's future. A father recently told me that his landlord is selling the home they have rented for ten years. He is being made redundant and has until November to find a place to live. There are only 12 houses available to rent in Kildare for this family. A number of young mothers who are trapped in homeless hubs have to travel from Dublin or one end of Kildare to the other just to get their children to school. The Minister can just imagine the pandemonium each morning when people living in homeless accommodation in Lucan, County Dublin have to get their three children to Athy, County Kildare in time for school. These children cannot have their friends over to play because there is nowhere to play as they share a room with their entire family. Unfortunately, this is the reality of this Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government.

I am dealing with six families at the moment who are trying to access the tenant in situ scheme. I have been calling on the Minister for housing for months to increase the funding for Kildare County Council to address the demand and prevent more families entering into homelessness. In the recent announcement that was again trumpeted by the Minister, an additional €50 million was put forward by the Government. Kildare County Council received no funding. In my opinion and that of many others, Kildare County Council is being penalised because it does its best to remove families as quickly as possible from homelessness, which seems to be the criterion set by the Minister for housing for this additional funding. Yet, at the end of August this year, there was a 50% increase in families in Kildare who are in homeless accommodation for more than 12 months. The questions remain. What should these 12 families now do? Do they simply not count?

In a rich country, we are again failing the most vulnerable in society. We are now running just to stand still. We need to increase funding for the tenant in situ scheme across all counties to support families facing homelessness. This funding must be dynamic and allow local authorities to respond to the level of need in their area. No child should ever be made homeless.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I completely agree.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I hope that is something we can all agree on in this House. An eviction ban on cases where children are involved should help to provide some respite for the many households that are struggling. We can help to protect future generations and that would lead to a long-lasting, positive outcome for Ireland's young people. The eviction ban during the Covid-19 pandemic prevented people entering homelessness at a time of enormous uncertainty and, most important, protected vulnerable children.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I second this motion and pay tribute to my colleague, Deputy Wall, and the rest of my colleagues for bringing it forward.

Almost 250,000 children in this country live in poverty. That is one in five children living in poverty. That is a damning indictment of a Government of a country, which this year can boast that among EU member states it has the healthiest set of public finances, the highest rate of economic growth, the highest rate of domestic demand, the lowest rate of harmonised index inflation and a general Government budget that is in surplus. In this context, how can we be a shining leader among EU member states in a country that has had budget surpluses for seven of the past nine years, during which Fine Gael has been in power, propped up by and then joined by Fianna Fáil? These figures mean that the children in this country are living in a shameful paradox of plenty.

It is not that in those nine years we have been moving from the bad situation of the economic crash to a better one. No. The number of children in consistent poverty almost doubled in 2024, rising by 45,000 children in one year alone. Despite rising wages, real household incomes, particularly among the lowest income households, have fallen in recent years. Thanks to important research by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, we can now point to findings that show that lower income households experienced inflation of 7%, while better-off households experienced a rate that was two thirds lower at 5%. The reality is that lower income households cannot avail of the multi-purchase deals. They cannot put solar panels on their homes. They are exposed to the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis. The Minister for Social Protection and other Minsters come in here and trot out figures to show that inflation is down and that the energy crisis is not as bad as it once was. That is not the case. The rate of inflation may have eased, but prices have remained very high and the reality is that the cost-of-living crisis is hitting lower-income households the hardest.

We did not come here today just to give out. We came with proposals, which the Government is disgracefully opposing. Child poverty cannot be turned around overnight. The roots of child poverty, including joblessness, low pay and extortionate private rents, cannot be turned around quickly. However, the Government can ensure that no more than 5,000 children are living in homeless accommodation coming into this winter. The Government can introduce an immediate ban on any child being evicted into homelessness. The stories coming into my and other offices of families facing notices to quit are harrowing. I am dealing with a family at the moment who have been on the housing waiting list for ten years. They are number six in their area of Dublin City Council and they are overholding. They have nowhere to go. The mother has had to reduce her hours because her child has a disability. She cannot get services for that child. The family has been forced into poverty by the Government because of failures in housing and a failure to provide adequate services for her child who badly needs them.

One of the longer term measures the Government should have taken and now needs to take is the second tier child benefit payment. The Minister's Government and the previous Government have sat on their hands on this. The Minister said it would take a period of approximately two years to put it in place. He has offered all the reasons it cannot be put in place now and not an iota of progress has been made by the Department of Social Protection in the 13 years since the advisory group on tax and social welfare issued its report at the height of the recession. I was on that advisory group and the biggest issue was the integration of the tax and welfare systems. In a country that is home to the Europe, Middle East and Africa, EMEA, headquarters of the biggest tech firms in the world, we cannot seem to get our acts together and integrate the two systems.

The second biggest issue of the time was that our report could not have a cost impact on the public finances. Well, we live in a very different country now. We have lived in a very different country over the last decade, but nothing has been done to progress this. No one is denying that it is complicated or that there could be unforeseen losses that we need to mitigate, but the reality is we need to introduce the second-tier child benefit payment because for those families it is crucial that we ensure the State supports them out of poverty into work.

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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It gives me no great pleasure this morning to stand in this historic Chamber not just as a public representative but as a citizen of this nation deeply troubled by the reality that in our modern democratic republic, children are going to bed hungry, cold and without a place to call home. Let us all let that sink in. In 2025 thousands of children are homeless – 5,000 children - and thousands more live in poverty so deep it robs them of their dignity, potential and hope. These are not distant problems. They are happening in our constituencies, schools, hospitals and streets. They are happening on our watch and on this Government’s watch and of that of the government before it. What are we doing about it? If we are not here to protect the most vulnerable - the child sleeping in a car, the child missing meals, the children who think they do not matter - then what is the purpose of this Chamber? This motion, which sadly the Government is opposing, is not just a policy proposal; it is a moral reckoning. It is a call to conscience and a demand that we stop managing this crisis and start ending it. We have to stop treating homelessness as a housing issue alone. This is a childhood issue and an issue of trauma and justice. A child who grows up without a stable home is more likely to suffer from anxiety, fall behind in school or face lifelong disadvantage. This is not just a personal tragedy, it is a national failure and it is a failure that is happening on our watch and that of the Government.

Poverty is not just about income; it is about exclusion and shame. It is about children who cannot afford to go on school trips, who wear shoes with holes or soles falling off, or who pretend they are not hungry because they know their parents are doing their best. It is about the silent suffering that too often goes unseen. When we see it we have to act. As this motion states, the ESRI research shows that one in five children, over 225,000, live in families below the poverty line when housing costs are accounted for. How can this Government justify spending over €630 million a year to reduce VAT on food and catering hospitality while the number of children living in consistent poverty and homelessness continues to increase? This reduction in VAT will benefit those businesses with the highest of turnovers such as McDonald's, KFC or Burger King and will certainly not be passed on to customers or reflected in better pay and conditions for workers. Nor will it address the underlying issues facing the hospitality sector, as the motion says.

Supporting this motion means building homes - not just units - and communities. It means ensuring that no child goes to school hungry. It means increasing social supports so that families are not forced to choose between rent and food. It means investing in wraparound services, mental health, education and healthcare, all of which lifts children out of crisis and into possibility. It also means listening to the parents who feel forgotten, the teachers who see daily the effects of poverty, and the children themselves who are wise beyond their years because their life has made them grow up too fast. It also means we need courage that we will not allow the famous market forces to solve this because we all know that will never happen. We see it daily. We need the courage to say that charity alone is not enough, and to legislate boldly to fund generously and act decisively.

This is not just about economics; it is also about values. What kind of Ireland do we want? Do we want an Ireland that turns away from suffering or one that meets it head-on with compassion and resolve? We have the resources - God knows we have more resources than we have ever had - and we have the knowledge. What we need is the will. We need problem solvers and not problem finders. Let us be the generation of parliamentarians that ended child homelessness and refused to accept that child poverty is inevitable. Let us be the generation that looked into the eyes of every child and said: “You matter, you are seen, you are loved and you will not be left behind”. I urge every Member of this House to support this motion not out of political obligation but out of human decency. I ask the Government to reflect on its opposition to this motion because every child deserves a warm bed, a full belly and future filled with possibilities.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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Over 225,000 children live below the poverty line in this country. How are families meant to get out of poverty in Ireland in 2025? Food is getting more and more expensive. Food is not an optional extra. It is an everyday basic need. People are working to the bone. Parents are skipping meals to ensure their children are fed. Coming into winter, once again energy costs are going up. Heating one’s home, cooking meals and refrigerating food are all basic necessities and people are being continually squeezed more and more. How is anyone meant to get out of that situation? If you are constantly working just to tread water, where is the hope for better coming from? Wages have not nearly kept up with inflation. Everyday basics get more and more expensive. Running a car is getting more and more expensive. Insurance costs are exorbitant. The NCT has gone up in cost. Road tax is more expensive if you have an older car. What are you supposed to do if that is the only car you can afford?

When it comes to housing, rent in Ireland is incredibly expensive. Getting a social home has a years-long waiting list. If you can get a mortgage, you will pay huge repayments and it could take 35 years before you will finally own your own home in your 70s. The future that successive governments have presented us with is incredibly bleak. Since 2016 a paltry total of 99 homes have been purchased under the tenant in situ scheme by Cork County Council. That is under 100 homes purchased in a nine-year period. That figure is quite pathetic.

The Government parties have presided over this housing crisis for nine years. In those nine years, they have seen homelessness figures soar along with the number of young people stuck living in their parents’ homes. They have removed an eviction ban, failed to meet construction targets and seen house prices rise and rise again. Every time we raise the issue, the Taoiseach and the Government refer to hot school meals and the free books scheme as long-term budgetary measures. He is trying to fool the people into believing that these long-term measures are working for every single family but I want to say they are absolutely not. In the middle of August, a very distressed and deeply upset mother came to me about the price of a laptop for the school where her child was going into first year. The cost of the laptop was €500. She could not pay it. I considered sending her to the credit union but that should not be a measure we have to take. A loan was not the solution. We had to apply for an additional needs payment. That parent had never applied for a social welfare payment in her life. In Nenagh, we visited The Lunch Bag during our think-in. It is one of the biggest producers of hot school meals. It is a fantastic company that has brought huge employment to the area. However, at a well-informed meeting with The Lunch Bag, we heard how the regulations and red tape introduced in late August mean that a significant number of schools, and therefore children, cannot get a hot school meal in some instances which can leave some children without a hot meal all day. The Government should not disingenuously claim both of these things as long-term budgetary measures because they are absolutely not. This is what we are seeing: children going to bed hungry. The Government is being disingenuous about a free books scheme that is not working because a majority of schools now use ICT equipment.

The Government is spending its time drafting a budget to give tax reductions to the food and catering industry while mothers and fathers are struggling to put food on the table.

The Government is focused on market supports while those who keep these industries working, the workers, are more often than not trying to get by on a minimum wage that has not nearly kept pace with inflation. It is simply a fact. If we want to socialise and spend our time off in these businesses, we need to treat those who work in these industries with the basic dignity of a wage that can support a decent standard of living so they can support their own children. That will not be achieved through tax cuts for large companies.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I know the Minister, Deputy Calleary, ended by saying the Government will strive to reduce child poverty. What he should be saying is it will aim to eradicate child poverty. Not enough debates in here are about philosophy, but ultimately this is a debate about political philosophies. If you want to break that down into layman's language in relation to this issue, it is about whether we should be doing everything we can to prevent children from being homeless, sleeping with their families in a car, which I have had to deal with in the not too recent past, or whether we should give a tax break to McDonald's. This is a real issue for the Government facing into this budget, because it is either children sleeping in cars and homeless, or a tax break to Ronny McDonald. That is the choice. Ultimately, we need to break it down for the general public out there that these are the choices we, as a Chamber, collectively have to make, and which the Government will be pushing through. That is the difference between what the Government believes in and what we believe in. We do not say that too lightly, but we have to say it because we have to break it down into the choices that we have. The Government has choices.

The cost-of-living situation is chronic. I have never seen it as bad. A teacher has told me of a situation, and I support the hot school meals programme, where a student stuffed their bag with a couple of extra meals because they said "Mammy likes those meals." It is great that they actually have those meals. Where are we going as a country when a child is eyeing up excess meals from the school-based programme to bring them home because their parents need to eat? That is where we are at.

I accept the school meals programme, the back to school books allowance and the provision of books and other resources are good. However, the fact of the matter is that the escalating costs in this country across all the range of issues my colleagues mentioned is so excessive that we need to continue the targeted measures my colleagues have listed. The Government really needs to make those decisions within the next two weeks, otherwise when the budget is announced I will be coming back in here and repeating what I said at the start. The Government has a choice between trying to help children who are sleeping in cars with their families because they are homeless or giving a tax break to Ronny McDonald. Which one will the Government do?

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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There are swathes of people raising families in a rental system that was never designed for long-term living, with the inflationary impact of increased rental costs. The average industrial wage in this country is just over €50,000, but the average rental price in Dublin is over half the industrial wage. If we take into account all the cost-of-living increases, particularly relating to food, they have been well discussed. We have brought forward motions in relation to this. My colleague, Deputy Nash, has done great work in raising the issue of increased food costs. However, some households are worse off to the tune of €3,000 per year on food costs alone. If we look at beef, there was a 23% increase in beef prices in four months earlier this year. We are not talking about fillet steaks or premium cuts of meat. We are talking about beef mince that will go into lasagna, spaghetti bolognese and shepherd's pie, meals and staples that should last a couple of days. Ordinary families are being priced into poverty. Workers are being priced into poverty by this Government's inaction.

Rents remain too high. Not too long ago this Government asked us to rise and applaud nurses, gardaí and teachers on €35,000, €38,000 or €45,000 per year who unable to afford so-called affordable housing schemes. Look at the other workers in those sectors, namely, the healthcare assistants, the Garda clerical staff, and the school secretaries who have been on the line in recent weeks who are earning less than their colleagues in the same industry. They are even further and further away.

The Government is gaslighting people in relation to the tenant in situ scheme, announcing more money in late summer for a scheme that is an absolute zombie scheme. I am working with numerous families who were well down the road, along with their landlords, of availing of a tenant in situ scheme but who have had the rug pulled from under them and who are now overholding, some of them over two years, and one of whom was advised not to take an allocation that they had accrued through their time on the list because a tenant in situ scheme was about to come through for them. That scheme has been pulled and they do not have a housing allocation and they are entering homelessness with a child with severe additional needs. There are 5,014 homeless children in a country that cannot stop bringing in money and that cannot stop finding extra billions. It is an absolute scandal.

One measure that will help tackle poverty is to get the community welfare officers out from behind the hatch and to decentralise the system and to give them mileage and allow them to set up clinics and meet families in towns and villages all over the country and to understand the community. They must allowed to pay for new gas boilers when 94-year-old women in my constituency are unable to avail of them because they have to avail of the full retrofit scheme and pay up front. It is an absolute scandal.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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I am proud the Labour Party has brought forward this motion. This Government has many things to be considering and reasons to be under pressure. There are 5,000 children are homeless and that one in five children is growing up in constant poverty. That will be the legacy of this Government. Food prices are up, energy prices are up, childcare fees are up and college fees are up. Rents, when you can find the property, are out of control. That is the truth. Families have nothing left to give. The food presses are bare and the bills are in arrears. Families are turning off the lights. A mother in my constituency told me that the one small treat she had was bringing her kids out at the weekend. That is gone because her food bill has shot up by 20%. That is the reality we are living in. The gap between those who have and have not is widening every single day.

The Government talks about full employment, but what good is a job when you need two to keep the lights on and when those on disability payments, carers and low-paid workers are trapped in deep poverty.

As mentioned by the previous speaker, the Minister gutted the tenant in situ scheme, which was literally keeping people in Dublin Fingal West out of homelessness. Now I am dealing with parents getting notices to quit with absolutely nowhere to go. One mother told me she does not have enough money for bread and milk for break from Tuesday to Friday. They were in the supermarket and the sister leaned over to her brother and said, "Put that chocolate bar back, we're poor". Imagine what it feels like for that kid to say that to their sibling. Imagine what it is like for a parent to hear that.

That is the Ireland we live in in 2025.

For years, children's organisations have warned that one-off payments are not the solution to poverty and that we need real systemic change. This has been ignored and instead the easy options were taken with gimmicks and promises of double payments. With no cost-of-living package this year, it seems we are pulling the ladder up behind us.

We know from decades of evidence that poverty scars childhood. However, when supports are directed at families most at risk the results are clear and fewer children go hungry, more children thrive and the gap between those who have and those who have not narrows. A second rate of child benefit would lift thousands of children out of poverty. We need a serious commitment to this in budget 2026 but it has to be targeted and not replace the measures already in place. We must remember that, when the Government claps itself on the back, families in this country are at breaking point.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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Child poverty is rising. It is incredible to think that, in 2025, in one of the richest countries in the world, we have a situation whereby this generation is so much more worse off than the previous. I think of my own parents who were born in the 1960s. When they grew up, they had very little but they were never hungry. That was 60 years ago. There are serious questions, and the Government needs to have a serious look at itself, when right now today the basics and guarantees in life in Ireland do not exist any more, right down to children being hungry. It is the greatest shame of all. We hear a lot about the child poverty and well-being office in the Department of the Taoiseach when we speak about child poverty. It has been in place since 2023 but poverty is rising. This needs to be looked at again because from my read of it, it is not achieving what it should.

I listened to the Minister speak about child poverty targets. Targets are not new and missing targets is not new either. I was reminded of working on social protection policy for my party from 2016 to 2020. At the time, Regina Doherty was the Minister. By 2017, the Government realised and acknowledged it would not meet its 2020 target, which was to lift one third of children out of poverty. Targets are set and targets are missed.

As the Minister for Social Protection is here, I want to use the time I have to raise several issues. We know when it comes to the SILC data, the at risk of poverty data, the deprivation rate and the consistent poverty rate, the increases are a lot of the time with regard to one-parent families and our disabled citizens. The cost of disability payment has been promised and we have report after report. It is like the Government does reports that tell it we need a cost of disability payment but then nothing happens. Similarly on one-parent family payments, at least three times we have published proposals on establishing a child maintenance service similar to what is in place in the North of Ireland. Research has proved that, where child maintenance is paid, it can play a role in lifting children out of poverty. It needs to be looked at.

With regard to community welfare officers, the Minister will remember we tabled a motion and tried everything to stop the Government's plan to centralise community welfare officers. Last week, a gentleman came to my office whose disability allowance had been taken off him. We have been over and back and the decision is being appealed. It is an absolute nightmare. The medical assessor says he can work but his GP, who knows him best, categorically states he cannot work. I know this gentleman. He has worked since he was about 15. If he could work, he would work. He would love to work. He waited seven years for thyroid surgery in UHG, which was scheduled for last Sunday. He was going to cancel it because he did not have the money to get to the hospital. I could not get the CWO. I had no number or name. I rang the national line, which could not put me through. It was an absolute rigmarole. In the end, he got €75, he got in and he got his surgery. That was good but it was a horrible experience for him. The CWOs should be in the community where they know Johnny and Mary and can assess the situation there and then. The system is horrendous and it is really failing people.

This man is one of several cases I now have where disability allowance has been removed from a person on a decision by a medical assessor who has never met that person and has never seen him or her but decides that person is able to work when that is clearly not the case. I do not know whether it is to reduce the money paid out on disability allowance. That man was in my office again this week. He was crying because he would not be able to feed his children after tomorrow. The last place he will go is back to the CWO after the horrendous experience. This is a pity because the vast majority of CWOs are brilliant but this is where we are at.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What does this Government have against children? Despite the enormous resources at its disposal, thousands upon thousands of children are being left behind every year. When Fine Gael took office in 2011, there were just over 600 children officially classified as homeless. Now, it is a staggering 5,000 and continuing to rise. This means that, in the 14 years that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in one shape or another have been in charge of housing policy, tens of thousands of children have been forced into homelessness. The impact on these children is enormous. It has impacts on their physical, emotional and intellectual development, particularly when they are forced to spend two or three years in inadequate and insecure emergency accommodation.

The Taoiseach tells us that, apparently, child homelessness is a complex problem. I think this is blaming the victim of Government policy because child homelessness is not complex. It is a direct result of bad Government housing policy. There is a refusal to provide an adequate supply of social homes, particularly for those in or at risk of homelessness, and an overreliance on a private rental sector that is expensive, insecure and shrinking. The consequence of these two things is ever rising homelessness. I have not heard anything from the Minister who is present that the new housing plan will address these fundamental problems.

Thankfully, there are alternatives. Sinn Féin's alternative housing plan sets out emergency and medium-to-long-term actions needed to tackle this crisis. The Housing Commission report, which the Government continues to ignore, sets out the scale of ambition required to end homelessness and meet social housing needs. The homeless policy group, our homeless NGOs, have set out the solutions in a ten-point plan, again ignored by the Government. The problem is the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Government are simply not listening. Until this changes, more and more children will be forced into homelessness. It does not have to be this way. The Minister can make the difference. Let us see the colour of his money when the new housing plan is published, and if he is serious about tackling this problem, which he himself is making worse.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Deputies for tabling the motion because we cannot speak enough about child poverty. We on the Opposition benches have put forward plenty of solutions. We have flagged to the Government time and again issues as they arise. They arise in our advice clinics and in our offices and we make sure we bring the message directly to the Government.

In his opening remarks, the Minister for Social Protection told us the motion did not reflect the complex and multifaceted nature of child poverty and it did not reflect the significant progress made by the Government. I suppose he might forgive us for not rambling in here to give the Government a massive pat on the back, given what we see every day of the week. He told us that tackling child poverty and homelessness was not merely a matter of policy but a national imperative rooted in our values as a society. The absolute neck of him to say this. It is everybody else's fault and everybody else's problem except the Government's. We see it every single day of the week. It is heartbreaking to see parents who cannot afford to manage with their kids. It is heartbreaking when they tell us that, after they have paid the rent, for food, the exorbitant crèche fees and the fees for devices in schools because the free book scheme does not take account of them, and in many instances having been to the Society of St Vincent de Paul or the community welfare officer, they have nothing left. They are left to face their kids and tell them they have nothing left. Treats are gone. They are a thing of the past.

It is not hard to see the solutions. The solutions are very simple but the Government needs to start by recognising the facts and acknowledging the failure of policy. The number of children in consistent poverty is at 8.5% but this is doubled when we take into account the cost of housing.

If he can, I urge the Minister to imagine for a moment just how expensive it is to be poor. To live in emergency accommodation is to be reliant on fast food and takeaways, which are more expensive. When people are poor, the Government forces them into a situation whereby they have to pay for the most expensive option. People who are on the ESB meters are the same; they pay the most expensive rates. There are children in this State, in a time of plenty, who are going to bed hungry. That is a matter of Government policy and Government policy, if it changes, will address that issue.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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No child in Ireland in 2025 should grow up without a home or without hope for the future. If this Government runs its full term, every single child in Ireland will have been born and grown up under a Fine Gael Government. Thousands of those who are children now are going to look back in the years ahead and ask why did this happen and why did they have to grow up in these circumstances.

Those on the Government benches opposite are at pains to tell us how well the economy is doing, reciting statistics on low unemployment, GDP and economic growth when, in reality, child poverty has reached crisis levels in Ireland and shows no sign of improving. In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Just last month, the number of children experiencing homelessness in Ireland reached a new record, with over 5,000 children in emergency accommodation, but that does not count all of the children who are in overcrowded, impossible situations. A total of 226 of those 5,000 children come from the west of Ireland and many come from my own constituency in Mayo. The impact of what they are experiencing - being pushed into poverty and forced into impossible situations - on their physical and mental health is enormous. They are experiencing increased anxiety, developmental delays and lower educational attainment. How in the name of God are children growing up in homelessness, in impossible situations or in poverty supposed to compete with those on the other end of the scale who can afford grinds and everything else that they need in order to get the best life chances? They cannot compete because of the failures of Governments throughout their childhood that have pushed them into these situations. The isolation, stigma and impact on self-esteem of poverty do not stop when children reach the age of 18. They continue on beyond that, with reduced life choices and widening inequality, leaving scars on those children for the rest of their lives.

I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion today. Research from the ESRI reveals that one in five children is now living below the poverty line once housing costs are factored in. There is one thing that the Minister can do. Will he please reinstate the tenant in situ scheme? Right now, there are children that I am dealing with in my constituency who are frightened of losing their homes.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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A number of Deputies have referenced the more than 5,000 children who are now homeless and living in emergency accommodation. That figure is actually much bigger because people are living in overcrowded accommodation, with three generations of families in one home, children growing up in box rooms and so on. I mean it sincerely when I say that it is going to get worse. I know that because people are in my clinic every week who are at risk of becoming homeless, who are hanging on, overstaying or living in cramped accommodation with their families, which can only last for so long. The Minister, as the Minister for housing, has done nothing. If anything, he has actually made things worse. He has stopped the tenant in situ and housing first schemes. He has also stopped downsizing or rightsizing so that three- or four-bedroom houses could come back into use because he has cut the capital budgets. These are facts.

I have one straight question for the Minister, man to man. How many children must become homeless before he finally admits that he and his Government are wrong? I asked his predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that question when the figure was at 4,500. We are now at 5,000. How many children? Where is the accountability? Deputy Browne is the Minister for housing and the buck stops with him. Is he going to stand up and take responsibility? Is he going to do that?

We are talking here about child poverty. Sometimes, it is actually hard to see it when children are playing together but I see it in communities right across this country. My previous role was in addiction recovery and well-being and I know that the number one reason for people going into active addiction or ending up in the throes of addiction is childhood trauma. The damage that this Government, as well as previous Governments of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, is doing and has done to the children of this country is untold. In a couple of years, weeks or days, someone from Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael will stand up and talk about criminality and what is happening on the streets and about how they are going to crack down. If they looked after children who were in poverty and took them out of that poverty, they would not have to be coming out with this drivel about cracking down. The Government did not support families with children when they needed it.

On Saturday, 4 October, there will be a Raise the Roof protest in Cork. I plead with everyone to come out at 2.30 p.m. to the Grand Parade to send a message to the Government that enough is enough.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The starkest example of how unimportant child poverty and homelessness are to this Government is in its amendment to this motion. The Government's response mentions reducing child poverty but nowhere does it mention eradicating it entirely. The response also mentions that this Government has announced a target of 3% or less of consistent poverty to be achieved by the end of 2030. Does the Government believe it is acceptable for up to 3% of Irish children to live in consistent poverty? Will it make that its campaign slogan and put it on its election posters the next time around? I think not, somehow.

The motion states that the number of children in consistent poverty nearly doubled in 2024, up to 8.5%. Research by the ESRI shows that one in five children, or more than 225,000, lives in a family below the poverty line when housing costs are accounted for. The cost-of-living crisis is deepening, with annualised food price inflation in August up by 5%, and for the first time in the history of the State, child homelessness has surpassed 5,000. These are all the result of Government policies and decisions. Does the Government listen to the ESRI, the Children's Rights Alliance or any of the other bodies and agencies that are ringing the alarm bells on child poverty? The number of children in consistent poverty rose by 78% in the last year. This amounts to over 100,000 children trapped in poverty, with advocates warning that it could take four to five generations to break this cycle. This State has the funds to end child poverty. Alternatives to the Government's position are given regularly but are ignored and this is the outcome of that. I dread to think what the figures would be like without the Drogheda Women's and Children's Refuge, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and all of the other fantastic groups operating locally in Drogheda and elsewhere around the country trying to alleviate and reduce the consequences of this Government's failure of the children of this nation. I urge the Minister to listen here today and to make a pledge to end child poverty and homelessness. I urge him not only to make that pledge, but to bloody well act on it.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Right now in Ireland, 5,000 children are homeless and more than 100,000 children are living in consistent poverty. That is only the tip of the iceberg and what the official figures are telling us. One in five children is living below the poverty line once housing costs are counted and 250,000 children in this State are in enforced deprivation. This is a State that has recorded unprecedented surpluses and in that context, children are paying the highest price for Government failure.

Let us not kid ourselves; this has not happened by accident. It is not happenstance. It is the consequence of years of underinvestment and a refusal to ensure adequate funding. It is the result of Ministers refusing to index core rates and child income supports and starving the very community infrastructure that keeps families afloat like family resource centres, youth work, community development programmes, breakfast and after-school clubs, addiction supports and local mental health supports. These services need multi-annual, ring-fenced funding. Instead, they have been left scrambling year to year. We see the impact of this across a whole litany of failures that face children every single day, including record child homelessness and the CAMHS crisis.

Children are waiting unconscionably long times for disability assessments. This Government is breaking the law on therapies. I could also mention scoliosis and spinal waiting lists, shortages of school spaces, school building delays, unaffordable childcare and school transport chaos. Families are turning to food banks while parents skip meals so children can eat. The ESRI has shown today that child poverty is at crash-era levels. Barnardos has shown that almost half of families are cutting back on heating, electricity or food. Targets are set in press releases only to be missed by a mile. It does not have to be this way. Sinn Féin would do what this Government will not. We would guarantee adequacy by benchmarking and indexing core welfare and child income supports, and introducing targeted measures for low- and middle-income families. We would cut family bills by extending fuel support to low-income working families, moving all prepaid meter households and expanding free hot school meals, schoolbooks and school transport.

Communities need to be funded with sustained multi-annual investment in family resource centres and youth and community development. We need to recruit the therapists and clinicians to end scandalous CAMHS and scoliosis backlogs. We also see a need, as Deputy Eoin Ó Broin has laid out quite clearly, to build public and affordable housing at scale to end the pipeline into homelessness and poverty, because that is the legacy of this Government. The money exists but what is clearly missing is the political will. The legacy of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents is rising child poverty and homelessness. It does not have to be this way. With the right choices and the political will, we can end it.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. That brings the Sinn Féin contribution to a close. The speakers from the Social Democrats have ten minutes between them.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this vital motion. It is unfortunate that the Government is opposing it. There are 5,014 children homeless in this country. When that number is thrown out, we often do not consider that each of those children is a child whose life is being damaged. It is equivalent to 220 primary school classes of children being homeless. Homelessness has doubled under this Government since 2021. These children and the 225,000 children in poverty are growing up experiencing what psychologists define as "an adverse childhood experience", which is something that causes trauma, stress and developmental delays and potentially has lifelong physical and mental health impacts on children. It is shameful that one child is homeless in a country that has never had such wealth. That there are 5,014 children homeless is an utter scandal. The truth is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have never prioritised children. This includes the children who are made homeless and the children who are living in poverty. The Government has refused to put in place a ban on evictions because it is making housing policy for the big investor fund landlord lobby. This week is Simon week and it points out that prevention is what is needed. We need the ban on evictions, a properly resourced tenant in situ scheme and investment in prevention of homelessness to keep children in their communities where they have the support of family and friends.

A mother in my constituency who is facing homelessness because she is facing eviction from a rental home contacted me this week to tell me that Dublin City Council has told her that when she is evicted and needs emergency accommodation in the coming months, there will be no emergency accommodation available in Dublin. It is full. She will have to go to Meath, Kildare or Louth. How is her child going to go to school? How is she going to go to work? The housing crisis is absolutely out of control.

In recent weeks, I listened in disbelief to interviews with the former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as he spoke about his time in office with no acknowledgement of the fact that he never prioritised tackling homelessness. The truth is that the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin; the current housing Minister; and previous housing Ministers from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can waffle on with hollow words about record economic growth and achievements, but the legacy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael after 100 years in power is an utter failure in their primary and most important task and responsibility, as set out in the Proclamation, to ensure all children are cherished equally and to guarantee the welfare of all children. There are 5,000 children homeless and 225,000 children living in poverty. This budget must invest in housing and in supporting those who are in poverty. We can end homelessness and child poverty. It is a question of political will.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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What does it say about our State that it cannot ensure every child has an equal, just, flourishing and fun childhood? What does it say about our Government that it refuses to ensure every child has a bed to call their own? What does it say about our Cabinet that it is doubling down on its so-called attention to the issue of child poverty, rather than facing up to the facts before our eyes? Ireland is fast becoming a worse place to grow up for too many children. When I was preparing for this debate, I wondered if any of us would be here if the children who have been plunged into poverty had been the people who voted in last year's general election. I doubt it, because for the nearly 250,000 children who are experiencing poverty right now, my words and the Minister’s words, respectfully, mean nothing. For the thousands of children who woke up in emergency accommodation this morning, the Minister’s sentiments and my thoughts mean nothing. For the tens of thousands of children who are languishing on waiting lists for medical care, childcare, disability assessment, child or adolescent mental health services, speech and language therapy or physical or occupational therapy, the Government’s track record and even weaker commitments mean nothing. It now has the audacity to seek to amend a motion that states facts. Last week, it allowed a motion from another Opposition group, calling for curfews on children and young people, for a mini-CAB to confiscate PlayStations and Xboxes and for fines for parents, to go through the House. It did not amend that motion but it is amending this one. That is shameful.

I am not here a long time, but I have learned that we cannot expect the people who caused a generational failure with regards to policy to try to fix it. What does it say about Ireland that children and families must fight, appeal, persevere, go public and fight again simply to navigate a system that seems hell-bent on keeping them out? That tells me that our State has given up on children, young people and their families.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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This House can talk about many different things. Today we are talking about child poverty. I thank the Labour Party for bringing this motion forward. I have to say that talk is cheap and action is limited when it comes to child poverty and this Government's record. I worked in some of Dublin's poorest communities for close to 30 years. I do not need to remind people in this House that there was an economic boom and there have also been crashes. The economy has been shattered but it has also been fantastic. I can tell the House that in some of the homes I visited, you would not know whether there was a boom or a bust going on because the poverty was so high and so deep that it did not matter. It did not affect any change of circumstances for those families. When I visited homes where families were living in deprivation, the emptiness there never ceased to shock me. There were empty fridges, empty cupboards, no warm coats, no toothbrushes, no heating, no school supplies, no toys, no books, no games and nothing for children, but there was lots of fear, lots of shame and lots of anxiety. There was love, because not one parent wants their child or their family living in poverty.

Intergenerational poverty means that there is a risk, although it is not fate, that children will grow up to be adults in poverty. Education is a mitigating factor to help with that. However, childhood poverty or economic uncertainty is associated with lower cognitive scores and lower attainment to junior cert, and indeed, retention to leaving cert. I could talk about this all day but the point I want to make is that no matter what the Government thinks it is doing and getting right, until no child is living in poverty it has not got it right. There is a way out of this but the Government needs to want to do it. I implore the Minister to do everything he can to do it, but his record so far is not proving that he wants to do so. I ask him to listen to what people here who have expertise are saying. I ask him to go to the experts and do what they say, rather than continuing to make up things that are not working for families. There are children living in poverty today - the numbers have been shared here - and it is a disgrace.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion.

If we were to look for another way to express the concept of storing up problems, I do not think there are better words than "child poverty" and "child homelessness" to capture it. The lasting inequality and lifelong implications the Government is storing up because of its failure to deal with these crises will live with us for generations. Experiencing poverty as a child lowers life expectancy, increases risk of health issues and impacts across a range of other areas including crime, addiction, mental health, employment and education; the list goes on. With every inspirational story of people who have overcome the odds, the Government must acknowledge that thousands more are left behind. The levels of child poverty and homelessness that we currently have in this country represent a total breach of the social contract. In a country as rich as we are, it is chilling that in 2024, 104,780 children or 8.5% of our child population in Ireland, experienced consistent poverty, nearly double the rate of 2023. One in five children lives in enforced deprivation, all while we have full employment and a booming economy. How can it be that in a country where most people have jobs and we have so much money flowing in, 20% of our children are going without? It is because this Government is failing them. It can table as many amendments to the motion as it likes. These children are not just numbers; every one of them is a child who has fallen through every safety net of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments.

The Minister's Cabinet colleague yesterday trotted out the line we hear all the time that we do not have a monopoly on empathy. We know that. The people we are talking about today are some of the most voiceless in society. We in the Social Democrats and our colleagues across the left will continue to display that empathy here in the Chamber and hold the Government to account for its continued failure to deal with these crises.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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I have apologies from Deputy Coppinger. Our group will divide the time equally between the three of us. I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. One thing it does very well is draw a straight line between handouts for big business and child poverty and homelessness. It is utterly scandalous that the Government is planning to hand over €675 million in unnecessary VAT cuts to hotels, restaurants and fast food chains when one in five children is living in poverty. Employment in hospitality is up 6.6% this year. There are 13,200 more people working in the sector than there were two years ago. Closures are down 10% year on year. According to the CSO, gross value added increased by 14% from 2022 to 2024. None of that suggests an industry in crisis that needs Government support. That this is on the agenda for the budget is all purely down to the power of corporate lobbying. One of the greatest scams I have ever seen pulled in politics is to suggest that there is a massive crisis and that the answer is not targeted supports for small businesses, some of which are in crisis. No, it is a massive handout from the State, paid for by the public and by children in poverty, to some of the richest corporations in this country.

Since January 2023, the CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, Adrian Cummins, has 59 entries in the lobbying register. He has met with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. He has met with the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, three times. He has met the Minister for enterprise, Deputy Peter Burke, twice. He has met the Taoiseach. He has attended Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meetings and enterprise round tables. Adrian Cummins can pick up the phone and call the Government any time he wants. Can a parent struggling to put food on the table for their family do that? Can a child who is going to bed hungry? No. The Government has already worsened child poverty by delaying a living wage for low-paid workers by three years. It has refused to abolish sub-minimum wages for young workers despite being told to do so by the Low Pay Commission and the ESRI. It has a People Before Profit Private Members' Bill on Committee Stage right now that could end this age discrimination and impoverishment of young people at the stroke of a pen, but it refuses to do so because it always sides with the bosses over the workers. This is who Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Lowry crew and the other right-wing Independents joining the clamour for a VAT cut represent. They all met with Adrian Cummins too and they do not care about child poverty either.

Last week, we heard that the Government is planning not even to give minimum wage workers the measly 65 cent per hour increase recommended by the Low Pay Commission. It is nowhere near enough to cover the rising cost of living for minimum wage workers. The biggest chunk of minimum wage workers work in hospitality. Not only is the Government planning to screw those workers by keeping them on unlivably low wages, but it wants to give their bosses a massive tax cut as well. Where is the money going to go? Adrian Cummins says it is a matter for each business. Translation: it is going straight into their back pockets.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion today. I fully support it, particularly its call for budget 2026 to commit €630 million towards measures to relieve child poverty and homelessness, as well as its call on the Government to introduce a total ban on evictions of children into homelessness, and the legislation to prioritise housing needs of homeless families. As a member of the children's committee, it has been devastating to hear about the rising levels of child poverty in this country. The Children's Rights Alliance has reported that over a quarter of a million children experienced enforced deprivation in Ireland in 2024, showing just how prevalent this issue of child poverty is. As a parent, it is unimaginable that over a quarter of a million children lack a warm home, a nutritious meal or a winter coat in this day and age. It is unimaginable that over 5,000 children in this country are currently homeless. It makes me sick to my stomach to think so many children are without a bed or a home at night. The Government's lack of intervention is even more sickening. How can we sit back and allow this to continue? Homelessness has devastating long-term negative effects on children's physical and mental health. We know that children who have experienced homelessness are more likely to have health problems, poor academic performance, higher rates of depression, anxiety and behaviour disorders, and are more likely to go hungry and experience developmental delays. This will cause social and health issues for decades to come. We must act now.

We are already seeing the devastating impact on children in my constituency of Donegal. Hundreds of children in Donegal face homelessness. Hundreds are facing living in crumbling, unsafe homes due to the defective concrete crisis. The sense of security and belonging that a home is supposed to provide has been stripped away from these children. As the walls crumble beneath them, they are forced to live in homes and try to maintain their lives when everything around them is falling apart. It is extremely psychologically damaging to the children and their parents. They lie awake every night wondering how they are going to manage the roof over their heads crumbling, constant fear, worry and anxiety. While substantial harm has already been caused, we need to prevent this psychological damage. We need to act now on the defective concrete Act. I urge the Minister in his role to please meet with these families and listen to them, and get this sorted out once and for all.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The child poverty and child homelessness statistics are absolutely shocking. They are an utter scandal. We as a nation should be ashamed of ourselves. There are 104,780 children living in consistent poverty, up 45,000 in a year. There are 225,000 children living in families below the poverty line, and 5,014 homeless children in emergency accommodation, up 14% on last year. These are not just statistics; they are real individual children living in real families. Barnardos, the children's charity, has confirmed that homelessness is damaging childhoods right across the country. The real scandal is that the Government is trying to massage these figures and normalise this outrageous situation. This is a very wealthy country, at the last count the eighth richest in the world. These children can be taken out of poverty and homelessness. We have the money and the resources. The Government has a choice in the coming budget to take children out of poverty and homelessness, or to continue to support corporate landlords, vulture funds and the golden circle of the rich and powerful in our society.

Evictions lead directly to homelessness, in particular to children being homeless. We must stop evicting children into homelessness. No-fault evictions must be banned immediately.

The tenant in situ scheme must also be funded properly. Not a single house has been purchased in Tipperary this year, because this scheme has been completely vandalised by the Government. Households, especially those with children, are under huge pressure from the cost-of-living crisis. Food price inflation was up again by 5% in the month of August. In recent years, an additional €3,000 per year has been heaped on the grocery bills of families. Energy prices are among the highest in Europe. Recently, a whole host of energy companies announced huge increases. SSE Airtricity is up by 9.5%, an extra €150 a year. Bord Gáis Energy's electricity is up by 13.5% or €218 per year. Pinergy is up by 9.3% or €199 a year. Energia is up by 12.1% or €200 per year. Flogas electricity is up 7%, an extra €126 a year. The cost-of-living crisis will push more and more families into poverty. Significant energy credits, totalling at least €500, must be introduced in the coming budget. There must be a new child income support payment to address the shocking rise in child poverty.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I welcome transition year students from Ballyhaunis Community School in County Mayo, and their teachers, Bernie Osgood and Mairead Conway. It is great to have them here with us. I thank them for making the journey. I have no doubt some of the next politicians and leaders of the country are here today.

I very much welcome the motion before us, brought forward by the Labour Party. I also welcome the housing Minister here today. Housing is fundamental when it comes to child poverty. The rates of child poverty have doubled in the past year. One in five children across Ireland is below the poverty line. The rate is increasing every year. The Minister is no doubt aware that housing is one of the biggest contributors to this. The knock-on consequences for children waking up in a hotel room and going to school are immense.

As of July, 5,000 children are homeless, a 14% increase in the past year. What has the Minister done about it? I will tell him what happened in my constituency. The tenant in situ scheme was removed. A family was seeking to stay in a property and the council was willing to engage on this when the landlord wanted to sell, but because the scheme was removed the family ultimately entered homelessness. One tangible and practical thing that could be done would be to reinstate the tenant in situ scheme.

I also want to raise issues relating to housing in Mayo. There were only 103 housing commencements in Mayo in the first six months of this year. We must go back to 2016 figures, essentially recession-time levels, to see such a low number of commencements. The number of housing commencements was greater during the Covid years, when the construction sector was in and out of lockdown. This is a major issue. One of the biggest issues in my constituency at the moment is the residential development fee for construction. Families have to pay the local authority more than €4,000 to build their own home. What services do they get for it in rural Ireland? Nothing. That is the truth. Approximately one third of the cost of construction goes in tax in any case. That is one measure affecting home building that the Minister has also increased in the past year.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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The fact that more than 5,000 children are currently living in emergency accommodation is a national disgrace. It is 5,000 young lives disrupted, 5,000 children in crisis, and 5,000 futures being shaped by instability and hardship.

We in the Independent Ireland party believe the Government must go much further and much faster. It must declare a national housing emergency because that is what it is. The Government must use emergency powers to cut through the endless red tape that is choking delivery. We need modular and prefabricated homes that are modern and decent and that are rolled out in weeks not years. We must activate the thousands of vacant and derelict homes in towns and villages and turn emptiness into homes.

We urge the Government to invest in prevention. Too many families end up homeless because of arrears or eviction notices. The Government must help them early, provide supports for those in arrears, and mediation between tenants and landlords, so people can keep their homes in the first place. Let us use the tax system to cut rents because workers paying more than half their wages in rent have no chance of getting ahead.

Another issue that is related to child poverty is the hot school meals programme. It was meant to be a solution but, again, as we highlighted, it is deeply flawed. The scheme is riddled with bureaucracy and has become a form of discrimination against small rural schools. Unrealistic requirements such as architectural certification and mechanical ventilation are pushing providers away and leaving children without a hot meal. Some children who are living in the right place can get it but others cannot. It is a case of tough luck. That is basically how the system the Government put in place works. We have proposed a practical community-based solution. We should use the existing meals-on-wheels network model to deliver hot meals to schools. These services are already on the road. They are already certified and trusted by the public.

While we agree with much of what is contained in the motion, we have difficulty with the Labour Party's intention of shifting money from the reduction in VAT on the hospitality sector. Deputy Paul Murphy gave out about people talking to Adrian Cummins. I do not care who we talk to. The cafes, hairdressers and restaurants in this country are closing their doors. They do not have a clue. They think we should just shift money, which would further destroy them.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I am going to give the Minister the answer today to solving a lot of the problems. I am in business all my life, so I treat politics like business - delivery on budget and on time.

We are talking today about homelessness and child poverty. The overspend on the children's hospital is €853 million. I am the Chairperson of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. We will have the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, before us today. All I hear from the committee, which has been looking at the budget for the past 12 months is that there has been an overspend on everything Departments are doing. There is no accountability. The Government wants to raise more taxes and put more people into poverty when it cannot manage the purse. Let us compare public versus private delivery. Public versus private is on budget and on time. I spoke to IBEC and different bodies across the board in recent weeks. We had a massive meeting with business owners in Whites of Askeaton this week. They cannot understand why each Department overspends by millions. This turns into an overspend of billions on the budget. Then they ask how they can raise taxes. The Government must stop the sloppiness of Departments overspending. If the Minister lets me get into the Department I will give him the help. I will show him where the overspends are. I will give him the power to make people accountable. The Government should use models from other countries where infrastructure projects are being delivered on time and on budget. Then it can hold the Departments to account. That is what I am about. I am not here to kick the Minister around the room. I am here to help him, if he will let me help him. I am pointing out faults in Departments, not only the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Minister is being told what is in front of him. Why does he not let people in this House help, who have enough experience to know that if a profit is not being made then they are not in business? In this House, if you lose all the profits, you are still in business and you get promoted. Let us stop the rot. The Minister must let us help him deliver.

I do not mind if he gets the praise for it. I will help him get the praise once he delivers.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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It is regrettable that Ireland, one of the richest countries in the world, has seen a significant rise in children living in consistent poverty. According to the Children's Rights Alliance, one in 12 children, or more than 100,000, is in this situation. Obviously, inflation has risen. There are various reasons for this, including the Ukraine and related issues, the fact that we live on an island, etc., but Ireland is still one of the richest countries in the world. Housing costs have risen as well. The big issue relates to children who have no housing at all. If you are in that type of situation, you are impoverished from the start and the hidden costs add up. There are also situations where kids do not get a proper breakfast. I know one homeless hub where children were being given an apple and a muffin. If they left after 8 a.m. for whatever reason, they did not get anything at all. We need to invest more in the likes of breakfast clubs. I welcome the school meals initiative. I have issues with the quality of the food on offer, but that is a separate matter.

I want to focus mainly on vulnerable groups like lone parents and people with disabilities. I want to see more movement on housing. I raised an issue about families being allowed to build homes in their back gardens at the start of the year. We had some positive responses in that regard, but people are being forced out. I know of a lone parent who has a child with severe autism and who does not have space in the main house. They are being told to take down the structure in their back garden because it is unauthorised. That structure is a solution for the family in question. There are different needs. It is not the overall solution but it helps. We need movement on housing. As my colleagues in Independent Ireland said, we need to get moving on modular home provision. We are in a crisis, but we are not treating it like a crisis.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset, I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this Private Members' motion on child poverty and homelessness. We are not by any means the poorest nation in the world, but poverty exists in our society. Poverty severely affects the very young, who are more vulnerable to ill-health because their bodies are not fully formed in comparison with those of teenagers and mature adults. Children are dependent on parents and guardians to look out for them and ensure they are well fed, kept warm, clean, healthy and are generally protected. However, many adults may have issues and obstacles to deal with, finding themselves in the poverty trap with children or elderly relatives to care for. Homelessness looms over them as a possible threat.

The upcoming budget will present the Government with an opportunity to put in place strong supports for these vulnerable members of our society by supporting families by means of the children's allowance, the fuel allowance, the back-to-school allowance, etc. I urge that the budget be used to improve our support for children and families by increasing the allowances that benefit them. I also ask that the hot meal scheme for schools be extended. It is a sad fact of modern life that the meals children receive via this scheme are the only hot meals many of them get. Extending it to all State schools would be a major development and would provide support and protection to society as a whole.

I further ask that the Government increase its support for all our children by investing in much increased respite care for the carers of our children who are physically or mentally less able than others in order that parents and guardians may cope with the stress of being full-time carers for their loved ones. Carers generosity in giving to these children is limited only by their ability to stay standing and carry on with what is a very tough task. They provide an invaluable service to the State, but they cannot continue to do so 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Regular respite is vital to them being physically and mentally able to continue to care, despite many of them suffering illness themselves as they grow older. Our children are our future, so we must continue to increase our investment in their health, education and well-being generally. With intelligent investment from this budget, we can help all of our children to prosper and live in health and happiness. They can bring all of this forward to when they will be parents with children of their own.

I pay tribute to Foodlink in my county of Kerry, which is operated by south Kerry development group services and which provides food in Cahersiveen, Killorglin and Killarney and many other parts of the county. It is a regular occurrence to see children waiting at the front door for food. That is a very sad reflection on society today. Many people living in food poverty are living in remote rural areas and can quite easily go unnoticed. Every day, there are thousands of meals delivered. This is an issue that faces many families who will not go to the local community centre or the family resource centre because of pride. It is about getting to the homes of people who need help the most. There are other organisations that deliver food programmes in my county, including the South West Kerry Family Resource Centre in Cahersiveen, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, etc. They do tremendous work Can we do more? We can always do more, no matter how difficult a situation might be. I call on the Government and the Minister to do everything humanely possible to rid our country of food poverty and homelessness.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I have considered the Labour Party motion. The Government has presented its countermotion on child poverty and homelessness, which shows our determination to drive down the child poverty rates, increase supports for families and tackle family homelessness. We have outlined the significant progress we have made and reinforced our firm commitment to delivering more progress on these critical issues. Ireland has seen extraordinary social and economic progress over the previous four decades. Reductions in poverty, alongside improvements to living standards, have demonstrated the transformative potential of collective action. However, despite these schemes, poverty persists and inequalities remain. Many people struggle to make ends meet and remain one misfortune away from falling into poverty.

Strengthening the resilience of households and communities to prevent people descending into poverty is crucial. That is why the Government is determined to address poverty, and child poverty in particular. I recognise that while figures and statistics and crucial for measuring progress, they are certainly not the full picture. Behind the statistics, figures and percentages are real people with daily lived experiences of poverty, deprivation and exclusion. Indeed, the highly progressive Irish taxation system and social transfers are extremely effective at redistributing income and are recognised as one of the most effective at poverty alleviation in the EU. From an international perspective and according to Eurostat, Ireland's at-risk-of-poverty rate fell from 13.4% in 2022 to 12.3% in 2024. This remained below the EU 27 average of 16%, with Ireland's ranking improving from seventh in 2022 to fifth in 2024.

Ireland continued to be the best-performing country in the EU in the context of reducing poverty and inequality through social transfers in 2024. Social transfers reduced at the risk of poverty rate by 62.7% in Ireland, substantially higher than the EU average of 34.1%. While Ireland's system of social transfers is among the best performing across the EU, the Government and I are conscious that we must continue to strive to do more and assist those families who are in poverty. The latest poverty data from the Central Statistics Office is disappointing and shows us that investing in child poverty must be a continual process. We also must remember this data does not reflect the Government's full response to child poverty in 2024 and 2025 through budget and other measures. The Taoiseach spoken about the need to deal with child poverty holistically if we are to have a decisive impact. He has also reiterated his determination that this Government would do everything it can to remove the hurdles facing too many children experiencing poverty, to make the rates fair and to give every child an equal start.

It is important to recognise that Ireland continues to make great progress in cross-national comparisons across EU member states in terms of addressing poverty and social inclusion. Reducing child poverty is not only crucial for our children, it is also important for our communities and country to ensure a fairer and more cohesive society.

Our determination to reduce child poverty is reflected in the delivery of our programme for Government commitments to date and the establishment of the child poverty and well-being programme office in the Department of the Taoiseach, the setting of a new and ambitious child poverty target, unprecedented increases in core social welfare rates and targeted payments that support families and children most in need and investment in key programmes and initiatives, such as the hot school meals and free schoolbooks programme. We are fully aware of the work that remains to be done over the lifetime of this Government and beyond to reduce child poverty, and we are committed to this.

In the context of budget 2026, the Government has made clear the importance of focusing investment and resources to families with children where it is most needed. In making our budgetary decisions, targeted measures aimed at tackling child poverty and reducing homelessness will be at the core.

In relation to income support, our key focus will be on existing targeted measures that we know work, such as the child support and working family payments. In line with our programme for Government commitments, we are continuing to explore a targeted child benefit payment, and, as the Minister, Deputy Calleary, said, while work is under way, a second-tier payment is complex and will take time to get right. As a result, it will not be announced as part of budget 2026.

In tackling child poverty, it is essential that we do so by means of a cross-government approach. For example, this includes focusing on targeted measures in relation to homelessness and housing. The additional €15 million that I allocated to my Department in the past few weeks for a second-hand acquisitions budget is a clear and unambiguous reflection of the Government’s commitment in this regard. When I became Minister, there was €60 million available for second-hand acquisitions. It is now the middle of September, and that has increased to €375 million already. This additional funding complements a range of other measures to address long-term homelessness and will, as I said, be ring-fenced and targeted at acquisitions that support families, primarily those larger families with children, to exit long-term emergency accommodation into housing. Together with income supports and measures relating to homelessness and housing in budget 2026 and beyond, I will continue to concentrate on expanding the vital services in our communities. However, we cannot achieve everything in a single budget. Tackling child poverty and homelessness will require a concerted and continued effort over the lifetime of this Government. That is a firm commitment, as the Taoiseach outlined in the context of child poverty and well-being earlier this month. We know that we have work to do, and we are determined to do it.

On housing, in the national development plan that was recently announced, one in every three euro will now be spent on delivering housing. That money will go either into the Department of housing or into Uisce Éireann to facilitate water to deliver housing. It is an extraordinary level of funding. I hear Opposition TDs saying that we are not spending enough money. Those same TDs now need to indicate what they would cut. Would they cut funding from education?

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Value for money.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Would they cut money from our hospitals or from the roads budget?

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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VAT cuts.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Where are they going to take the money from?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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How about VAT cuts?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Where are you going to take the money from?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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How about your response on VAT cuts?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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You are not going to shut me down, so please let me say-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You were good at that before-----.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I did not interrupt you, so let me-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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-----you were a Minister.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Look----

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Allow the Minister to answer.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you very much. We might look at the tenant in situ scheme. I am trying to square what Deputy Bacik said yesterday during Leaders' Questions, because the criteria in the circular I introduced earlier in the year put the focus on local authorities to prioritise families. The Deputy criticised that at the time. She said that single people were being singled out and left behind. Labour Party TDs did that. Yesterday, she demanded that I do what I did in my circular, which is to prioritise families. It is just bizarre, and I suspect she just did not actually read the circular that went out to local authorities,or what her own TDs said when it was announced-----

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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We did.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----because that circular prioritises families, which she criticised me for doing.

In relation to the Labour Party's motion, we have a demand-led tenant in situ scheme, which is what the Deputy wants. We have nearly 60,000 HAP and RAS tenancies. The Labour Party is well north of €20 billion, yet it has not quantified its position or said where that money will come from. Once again, it is more magic numbers, like the 1 million houses it is going to build, and not a single acknowledgement of its record when last in government, when in five years it managed to turn a housing crisis of too many houses into one of too few.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You destroyed the economy, pal.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You destroyed the economy. Listen to yourself.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Those who warned the Labour Party about the mistakes it was making-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Deputies, you will have your chance-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You are set to be the worst housing Minister ever.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Those who warned the Labour Party when it was in government of the crisis it was creating-----

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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You created the crisis.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Look at your ghost estates and policies on developments.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Read your history, Minister.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----in the context of turning too many houses into too few, what did it do? It criticised the likes of Peter McVerry instead of listening to those warnings. It did not realise what was happening. That is what it did-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You torched the country. You destroyed the country.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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It is absolutely is extraordinary-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You should be wearing a sackcloth and ashes and apologising to the Irish people.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Can I ask the Deputies to just read the circular that went out to the local authorities and realise what it does? It prioritises families. I know the Labour Party's motion does not talk about prioritising children because whichever of its researchers wrote probably did read it. I ask the Deputies to read it as well.

As I said, there has been €375 million for second-hand acquisitions already this year. That is what our focus is on, but we cannot solve the housing crisis and the homelessness crisis by buying up existing properties. The solution is building more homes and more social homes.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I doubt it.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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That is what the Government and I are doing. We are also delivering more and more funding. Again, however, I ask the Deputies to put forward some numbers in the context of what they are proposing to do here. A few facts might actually help the situation.

This is a quick one for Sinn Féin. Its housing policy says to slash the tenant in situ scheme. The policy is available online. It is there in black and white. Sinn Féin wants to cut it down because it recognises what tenant situ was meant to be.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Speak directly to the 5,000 homeless kids, Minister. On you go.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Tenant in situ was always meant to be a temporary measure, which is even recognised in Sinn Féin's housing policy.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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There are 5,000 homeless children.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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It is extraordinary that as I try to speak for a few minutes-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you not a bit ashamed?

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry, Deputy, allow the Minister-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you not a bit ashamed?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----everybody has tried to shout me down.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Excuse me, a Chathaoirligh. The Minister addressed me directly. I am entitled to respond.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----because they do not want to hear facts. It does not suit the social media narrative pop-up to get the 30 seconds. They do not want to engage with the facts-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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How dare you.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----or the figures.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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How dare you.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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That is the problem.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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How about the facts and figures of 5,000 children who are homeless. That is only the tip of the iceberg.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Look at your own housing policy-----

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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It is the tip of the iceberg. Shame on you.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Look at your own housing policy.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you not a bit ashamed?

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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That concludes-----

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Look at all the facts and figures, Minister.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry, Deputies-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you proud of that figure, Minister?

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Deputies, through the Chair.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Excuse me, a Chathaoirligh, the Minister asked me a direct question, and I am asking him one.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Deputies, let us-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you proud of your record on child homelessness, Minister? "Yes" or "No".

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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They are the figures that matter.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you proud?

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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It is 5,000.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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How do you sleep?

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are you proud of your record on child homelessness?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Literally, how do you sleep?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I am very conscious of every one of those children-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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You are proud of your record, are you?

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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How do you sleep?

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Minister-----

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----and I will do absolutely everything to end child homelessness in this country-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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You do not look at those kids in the eye, Minister.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----and I am going to get those children out of homelessness-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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The invisible man.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----and what will do that are decisive decisions that I am making-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Decisive decisions.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----and not the rhetoric-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Are there other kinds of decisions?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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----- from the likes of yourselves over there who do not want to engage in facts-----

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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What about the overspend, Minister?

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----and who want to-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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You should be ashamed of yourself, Minister.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----promise people rainbows-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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You should be ashamed.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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That concludes-----

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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-----and do not actually want to provide practical solutions.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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It is a waste of money.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Chair-----

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. That concludes-----

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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That is outrageous.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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That concludes the Government's response. I now ask the Labour Party, Deputies Bacik and Nash, to conclude the debate. They have ten minutes.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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What an extraordinary attempt at deliberate deflection that was by a Minister who has nothing of substance to say in response to our careful, thoughtful and constructive motion. The Minister asked us about figures from the Labour Party side. There is one very stark figure that should be uppermost in his mind and uppermost in the minds of all his Government colleagues, and that is the 5,000 children who are homeless.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Hear, hear.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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It is an utterly shameful figure. It represents a record high in the numbers of children who are without a home under the Minister's watch. He can deflect and seek to scapegoat others all he likes, but this is under his watch. He is the Minister for housing, and it is simply not good enough to say he will be taking decisive decisions to reduce and take children out of homelessness. How is he going to do it? We are proposing to him measures that would take children out of homelessness, patently, because all the people he just quoted to us are telling us all that what is driving children into homelessness are evictions from the private rental sector. Therefore, we are saying let us do something creative and constructive to help and support the children and families we are all hearing from all the time who are utterly despairing. As I said yesterday, they see nothing from this Government; no safety. The Minister talks about tenant in situ, but there are no new acquisitions. We cannot make tenant in situ work for the families who come to us. The Minister knows this. Of course we criticised the Government's circular. We did so because it was rendering a scheme that was supposed to be a safety net utterly ineffective for the families we are seeking to support.

I will give the Minister another figure - €630 million. That is the amount the Government is apparently looking to spend on an untargeted VAT reduction for the hospitality sector. If the VAT cut is to be in respect of food and catering alone, that would be €630 million. For the entire hospitality sector, it would be closer to €800 million. That is a sum that we in Labour believe would be better spent on alleviating child poverty and tackling child homelessness. That is what the Government should be doing. The proposed VAT cut is a sledgehammer approach.

It is going to benefit the bigger companies, namely the McDonald's of this world. That is not effective. It is not effective to support the struggling independent cafés and restaurants which need targeted supports from the Government. It is certainly not enough to support the families who are desperate and at the end of their tether because they cannot see any way to secure a roof over their heads and those of their children this winter.

There are clear ideological choices for the Minister and his Government colleagues to make in respect of the budget. The Government is choosing to rely on market forces rather than adopting the active State policies and interventions that would make a difference. It is choosing not to invest in ensuring that the concept of tenant in situbecomes truly effective. It is choosing not to invest in a second tier of child benefit. Earlier, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, said that the Government will not create a new second tier of child benefit. That is regrettable. The Government has had two years to work on this. We all know it is complex, but there has been a great deal of research done and it is regrettable that the Government is not taking a targeted approach to addressing child poverty.

The Government's countermotion is derisory. I read the wording and could not believe it. It refers to the Government's priority of a reduction in child poverty. It lacks any ambition or sense of urgency. At the end of the countermotion, the Government says absolutely nothing. It says it is committed to further progress and will use the budget to prioritise measures to reduce child poverty and homelessness. What are these measures? If the Government is not introducing a second tier of child benefit or investing in the measures we have discussed, including the tenant in situ scheme, to ensure that families will be safe from homelessness, what is it going to do? What about a no-fault eviction ban, which would ensure that children are not affected? Let us end child evictions.

I commend Deputies Wall and Sherlock on putting forward the motion and my other colleagues for speaking to it. Our colleagues have put forward constructive measures. We have suggested that this could be the budget in which we see a Government take really serious measures to end child poverty, the eviction of children and child homelessness. Even the Government's stated ambition falls far short of that. We see nothing and have heard nothing from the Minister, Deputy Browne, or his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, today which suggests that the Government is going to adopt measures that would have a real impact on addressing the scourges of child poverty and homelessness in our in our society today. One in five children, that is, 250,000, are living in poverty and 5,000 are homeless. This is a shameful record, and the budget should be serious about tackling it.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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There is a truism that abounds around this place at this time every year as we approach the budget. It goes something like "Show me your budget and I will show you my priorities". This is especially true of a budget that takes place at the start of a Government's term. We do not know a huge amount about the complexion of the budget that will be introduced on 7 October. However, we know from a very successful media campaign run by a sectoral interest and Fine Gael especially, which bent over backwards to accommodate it, that an enormous of money on an annual basis, totalling at least €630 million in one year, will be transferred from PAYE taxpayers to a small and narrow sectoral interest without justification. The Minister, Deputy Burke, who will be responsible for this, has refused to publish the data we know he possesses. He has been urged to publish it by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council. He has refused to publish the data that would provide any evidence for such a significant cash transfer and tax relief for one sector over another. He will not publish it because he knows the evidence is thin.

All of this was because of a solemn promise made during the election campaign by the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, to mollify one economic sector and tell people that the Government would do something for them if they re-elected those who were then in government. He also made a solemn promise, as did Fianna Fáil, to introduce a living wage for workers in 2026 and to extend sick leave entitlements in order to bring us somewhere close to modern European norms. However, the Government has collectively stuck two fingers up to working people in this country.

One fifth of all Irish workers are low paid. Coincidentally, the same proportion of children in this country are in consistent poverty. Workers are being denied a living wage and, because of the way in which this budget will be managed in two weeks' time, the Government will again refuse to introduce a second tier of child benefit to move poor Irish children out of poverty and give them the chance the Government says Irish children should have in this Republic.

Frankly, the Government does not believe this. The information on how we do this has been available for years. My colleague, Deputy Sherlock, spoke articulately and eloquently earlier about the Commission on Taxation and Welfare on which she sat more than ten years ago, which clearly identified the principal thing we could do to declare war on and eradicate child poverty and give every child every chance. That was to introduce a second and targeted tier of child benefit. We have had many years of boom times to introduce such a payment but have simply refused to do so. We are now told that it is complex, which we know and understand.

There are complexities involved in introducing such a payment. We understand that. However, we have had ten years of Fine Gael, supported by Fianna Fáil in one fashion or another, and they have simply failed to do it because the political will is simply not there. The Government prefers to transfer taxpayers' money to certain economic sectors rather than focus on alleviating child property. They are the choices the Government will make. When it does that, workers will not benefit.

History has shown that this particular battle has not been to the benefit of workers and their pay, terms and conditions and has not been to the benefit of consumers. When this happens, the Government will declare victory and say there is nothing more it can do for the hospitality sector. I am not callous enough to say that I am not concerned about businesses in the hospitality sector closing. Of course I am, but like child poverty running a business is complex and so are the demands and costs.

What is the Government going to do about energy costs? What is it going to do about reforming the way in which local government is funded and the overreliance on commercial rates? What is it going to do about training and professionalising the hospitality sector? It will do nothing because in the boom times, we simply take taxpayers' money and throw it at the people who shout the loudest without any justification whatsoever for doing so.

The Minister said it is complex to introduce a second tier of child benefit, and it is. We moved heaven and earth in early 2020 to make sure, justifiably and correctly, that businesses were supported to remain open in the heat of a global pandemic. We moved heaven and earth to introduce a wage subsidy scheme, complex and all as it was. A second tier of child benefit is achievable and can be done. All we are lacking is the political will of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Independents who support the Government.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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Before we move on to Leaders' Questions, it has to be noted that I sat next to the Minister, Deputy Burke, during the debate. He offered full respect to each and every one of the Opposition speakers without interrupting once, yet in the single ten-minute slot in which he had to speak, he was interrupted and heckled. That is absolutely ridiculous. This is an ongoing trend and it has to be stopped because it is completely disrespectful.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 24 September 2025.