Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Phelan, who got his junior Ministry yesterday, and call on him to attend the Seanad to address the serious issue of local councillors and the commitment given by the former Minister, Deputy Coveney.I was very concerned to read in the newspaper that a survey had been carried out by UNICEF according to which one Irish child in five lives in an household in which no adult is employed. That is very serious. Also, one Irish teenager in 11 is not in school or work. The report further states that 18.3% of Irish children are living in related income poverty. Ranking 17th out of 41 countries, 17.9% of Irish children live with an adult who is food insecure. We have come in here for months on end and heard that there was a great deal of work out there and that the country was coming back on track. Even at the housing meeting I was at from 9.30 a.m. this morning, one could see the number of people who are still homeless. I then read this today in the paper about children who are still hungry and insecure. We must address this situation, because it is a very serious one. I will be highlighting it with the Minister again. I would like to have the Minister of State, Deputy John Paul Phelan, come to the House to speak about the commitment the previous Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, had given to local councillors.