Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I apologise to the House on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, who is unavailable because she is attending a Cabinet meeting.

I thank Senators for the opportunity to outline to the House what the Government is doing with respect to child poverty, early education, access to medical cards and meeting the housing needs of our population. The Government has tabled a counter motion which sets out the progress that is being made in these areas.

The diversity of State support for children highlighted in the motion is reflected in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016, which aims to promote a more integrated approach to policies and their implementation through the lifecycle approach, which includes children as a specific group. The overall goal of the action plan is to reduce to between 2% and 4% by 2012 the number of those experiencing consistent poverty, including children, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016.

One of the 12 high level goals set out in the plan focuses on achieving significant real increases in income supports for children; three other goals address education initiatives. In addition, 42 of the 150 detailed targets in the plan cover services such as health, education, income support and early childhood development and care to tackle poverty in families and ensure that children reach their true potential.

The latest poverty statistics released in December 2008 by the CSO in its annual EU survey on income and living conditions showed that the overall consistent poverty rate in the population reduced from 6.5% in 2006 to 5.1% in 2007. The rate of consistent poverty in the case of children aged nought to 17 reduced from 10.3% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2007. Among lone parent households there was a significant reduction in consistent poverty rates from 33.9% in 2006 to 20.1% in 2007. The results also revealed that the average disposable income in respect of children increased by 16.2% between 2006 and 2007.

The survey covers the period during which the provisions of budget 2007, which introduced a range of measures costing over €240 million aimed at alleviating child poverty, came into effect. These included combining the three rates of child dependant allowance payments into a new single high rate qualified child allowance of €22 per week; increasing the rate of child benefit by €10 per week; increasing the back to school clothing and footwear allowance by €60 for children aged two to 11, and by €95 for children aged 12 to 22, to bring the rates of payment to €180 and €285 respectively; and providing additional funding of €3 million to extend the school meals programme.

Other budgetary measures which came into effect during 2007, such as the €20 per week increase in the lowest social welfare rate to €185.80 and increases in the earnings thresholds for one parent family payment and family income supplement, also benefited children living in poorer households. This package of measures was in addition to initiatives such as the €1,000 a year early child care supplement, which was introduced in 2006.

While the improvements in the poverty statistics between 2006 and 2007 are positive, I am concerned about the impact of the current economic downturn on low income families. Despite the limited resources available, budget 2009 prioritised delivering real increases in social welfare payments to ensure that, in line with the NAP inclusion, the most vulnerable groups in our society are protected. Increases of between 3% and 3.8% in the basic payment rates have been provided for this year, ahead of the projected rate of inflation. Provision was made for a range of measures costing over €56 million to benefit children and families. These include an increase of €2 in the qualified child increase payable with social welfare payments, bringing the rate up to €26 per week from January 2009; an increase of €10 per week per child in all family income supplement income thresholds giving an increase of up to €6 per child per week from January 2009; and an increase of €50 per week in the income threshold for the back to school clothing and footwear scheme to enable more families to qualify. These increases will mean the high level goal of maintaining the combined value of child income support measures at 33% to 35% of the minimum adult social welfare payment rate will continue to be met this year.

Children do not experience disadvantage on their own but in the context of their family. Income support ensures households have an income to provide a basic standard of living. Employment, however, has a pivotal role in providing an adequate income. In recent decades it has been demonstrated one effective route out of poverty for parents in the active age groups is through paid employment. Now, more than ever, we have to give priority to supporting people both into and in employment.

A key objective is to make employment pay. People with families who are in lower paid employment are eligible to receive the family income supplement. This increases household income while enabling recipients to remain in or take up employment. The weekly average payment for a one child family on family income supplement is approximately €99. Child benefit and the child care supplement also help to make employment pay because they are paid without means testing people returning to work or already in employment.

Employment participation is further facilitated and incentivised by a range of education and employment supports made available by the Department of Social and Family Affairs to people in receipt of welfare payments, especially the long-term unemployed, lone parents and sickness related welfare recipients. These include the back to education and back to work allowance schemes.

The activation and family support programme and the second chance education opportunities scheme offer supports to people on social welfare and others in improving their employability and personal and family situations. Policies that strongly support parents into employment have a major impact on child poverty. The current economic circumstances, with 1,000 people on average losing their jobs each day last month, are making life difficult for many families. The Government's priority must be to keep as many people as possible in employment while assisting those who lose their jobs as much as possible. The Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Enterprise, Trade and Employment are working closely together to this end.

Education is a major factor in children's development for their future economic independence, standard of living and overall well-being. Missing out on education at any stage of a child's upbringing can have consequences for both immediate well-being and in adulthood. Since 2000, significant progress has been made towards the establishment of high quality early childhood care and education provision. Unlike other European countries, Ireland does not have a long tradition of young children attending preschool services. This presented several challenges, including creating sufficient places, encouraging participation and ensuring services are of a high quality.

The provision of extra places has been supported through the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000-2006 and the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010. These programmes, with a combined budget of almost €1.1 billion, are projected to create more than 90,000 child care places.

A two-pronged approach has been taken to promoting participation and supporting affordability. Ireland has a long and cherished tradition of supporting parents and families to make informed but independent choices regarding the care and education of their young children. This is a core principle of the Constitution and the Government has supported this over the past two decades by increasing the value of universal supports to all qualifying parents. Child benefit is €166 per month for the first child and €203 per month for the third and subsequent children while parents of preschool children also receive the early child care supplement.

According to national and international research, participation in high quality early education and care services is of particular benefit to children at risk of educational disadvantage. The community child care subvention scheme, introduced in January 2008, subsidises community-based, not-for-profit child care facilities to enable them to provide quality child care services at reduced rates to disadvantaged and low-income parents. Average prices charged in these services per full-time equivalent place range from €40 for disadvantaged parents, €95 for low income working families and €140 for middle and upper income families.

Since 2000, the Government has provided the infrastructure necessary to support quality preschool places. These initiatives include the publication and commencement of revised preschool regulations; the development of Síolta, the national quality framework for early childhood education, and a framework for early learning by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment; and the development of a national child care training strategy.

In the current economic climate, it will undoubtedly be much more difficult to achieve the ambitious national policy commitments regarding early childhood education and care. However, the Government is determined at least to consolidate progress to date and ensure the necessary research and development work required to build capacity for future progress continues. Targeting of limited resources to those most in need will be a priority.

In making difficult decisions for 2009, the focus of the Minister for Education and Science has been to continue to prioritise investment in favour of those most at risk and to optimise access, participation and outcomes at every level of the system for disadvantaged groups. Up to 673 primary schools and 203 post-primary schools are included in the schools support programme established under the delivering equality of opportunity in schools initiative. The plan brings together and builds upon a range of existing programmes and supports in schools with concentrated levels of disadvantage.

Measures under the delivering equality of opportunity in schools initiative action plan continued to be rolled out over 2008 and will be extended further in 2009. These include the further expansion of the mathematics recovery and reading recovery programmes; the first steps programme for primary schools in the urban primary strand; the demonstration library project; the junior certificate schools programme as well as literacy and numeracy initiatives at second level; and the continuation of the family literacy project in 12 locations.

Evaluation of measures under the delivering equality of opportunity in schools initiative action plan also continued through 2008, with the collection of baseline data on literacy and numeracy in urban and rural primary schools. The monitoring and evaluation of measures under the action plan is crucial in informing policy on the role such initiatives can play in promoting social inclusion and in identifying models of good practice.

The Government is conscious that access to good quality health care is essential for the well-being and future development of children. Since the beginning of 2005, the number of persons with a medical card has increased by more than 200,000. This follows changes introduced by the Minister for Health and Children which resulted in mortgage and rent, child care and travel to work expenses being taken into account in the assessment process for a medical card.

The general practitioner visit card was introduced in 2005 to assist people, in particular families with children on low incomes, in overcoming barriers to accessing GP services. The qualification threshold for the GP visit card is 50% above that for a medical card and to date more than 85,000 persons have availed of the card.

In excess of 32% of the population has free access to a GP through the General Medical Services scheme. In assessing a person and their dependants for a medical card, the Health Service Executive uses income guidelines while taking into account issues such as medical and social need.

A steering group has been established in the Department of Health and Children to review the eligibility criteria for the assessment of medical cards in the context of financial, medical and social need in line with the commitment in Towards 2016 to clarify entitlement to a medical card. The Department of Social and Family Affairs is represented on this group. The review will inform the decision-making process on medical card eligibility and is expected to report to the Minister for Health and Children in the next few months. The Government's policy statement, Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities, sets out a vision to guide the transformation of the housing sector over the medium term by delivering more and better quality housing responses and by doing this in a more strategic way, focused on the building of sustainable communities. We are now working on the implementation issues which need to be addressed to transform the Irish housing environment to meet the challenges arising, many of which are identified in the policy statement. I am pleased that substantial strides forward have already been made. In 2007 alone, over 13,000 social and affordable housing units were delivered and, overall, the needs of almost 18,300 households were met across the housing spectrum. This represents a significant increase of 24% on the level of needs met in 2006 and is a significant step towards assisting an average of 20,000 households per annum over the seven years of the National Development Plan 2007-2013.

The commitment entered into by the Government under the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, was to achieve 27,000 social housing starts during the three-year period 2007 to 2009. In terms of delivery, we set out to achieve the first one third of this 27,000 unit target, or 9,000 starts, in 2007, the first of the three years in the target period. By the end of 2007 we had exceeded this target, with a total of 9,061 starts achieved across the local authority and voluntary and co-operative housing programmes and the rental accommodation scheme.

Despite the scale of the pressures on our public finances, the Government is providing significant levels of funding for housing in 2009. In light of increased numbers of households in need of housing supports, we must make every effort to optimise the use of available resources. One way or the other, the extent of current housing need demands a flexible and imaginative response to the structuring of our investment programme.

In the context of budget 2009, the Government announced a new initiative to provide a more cost-effective, targeted approach to meeting housing need through the use of long-term lease arrangements for social housing purposes. While traditional build-buy approaches have been expanded in recent years, with the introduction of the Part V agreements and the rental accommodation scheme, the use of long-term leasing will allow for a more efficient and effective use of available public resources in meeting housing output targets.

Essentially, the initiative means unsold housing units available on the market can be deployed to meet social housing needs and clearly demonstrates how our social housing investment programme can assist our social and economic objectives at a particularly difficult time for our country. The Minister of State with responsibility for housing has set aside funding of €20 million for the initial roll-out of the scheme this year. This is separate and additional to the general housing allocations provided to local authorities under the social housing investment programme. The range of initiatives in place and the significant levels of funding being invested in housing despite the difficult environment in which we find ourselves will allow us to maintain strong momentum towards meeting our commitments.

Research and evaluation of progress are central to ensuring our goals are met. The new, strengthened division, incorporating the Combat Poverty Agency and the Office for Social Inclusion, will be promoting a more integrated approach to social inclusion and child support policies and their implementation across Departments. The new division will regularly report on progress to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, the senior officials group representing the relevant Departments and the Cabinet committee on social inclusion and children.

Combating poverty, building an inclusive society and the eradication of child poverty remain major priorities for the Government. I have outlined the strategies and measures being pursued by Government across all policy areas to achieve these aims.

All children are entitled to a happy and fulfilling life and we must, as a society, strive to achieve that for them. Children are our future and we must seek to ensure they go into adulthood with the capacity to become mature and productive citizens of a socially cohesive and inclusive society. I am satisfied that the policies we have in place, which are regularly monitored and evaluated, are having a positive impact. Although the environment may be more challenging, I assure Senators the Government will continue to work hard to reduce poverty in our society in general but in particular among children.