David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I acknowledge a letter I received from the Leader of the House on changes being made to speaking time for Sinn Féin Members. I thank the Leader and those in the other groupings and parties who supported us on the issue.

I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on child poverty in the new year. It is an indictment of the State and previous governments that every measure of poverty an inequality in the State is increasing, especially when it comes to children. Between 2001 and 2010 the number of people experiencing enforced inequality doubled from 11% to 22%. This includes people who are going without two basic essentials each day, including a hot meal. The number of children deprived of very basic essentials has risen very substantially from 23.5% in 2009 to 30.2% in 2010. The number of people out of work has risen and now stands at 448,600. Many families can no longer pay their mortgages and cannot pay bills.