Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I thank the Minister for coming in. The Taoiseach has been quoted as saying child poverty will be prioritised in the forthcoming budget. This is so welcome. We are all looking forward to hearing the budget. It has been widely reported that the latest ESRI report said that in 2025 Irish children are suffering the highest income poverty rates of all age groups. I do not need to tell the Minister that child poverty and homelessness affects all aspects of life - health, well-being, education and future careers. Children who experience poverty or homelessness are more likely to be poor or homeless as adults. There are three particular aspects which I want to address today. The first is childhood hunger or food poverty, the second is fuel poverty and the third is homelessness.

We all know there are children all over the country who are hungry, cold and living with a real fear of eviction. There are large numbers of families who feel real despair about their futures. The Labour Party raised a motion on this in the Dáil last week. I want to hear what the Minister and his Department are prioritising to challenge and eradicate the three aspects of child poverty. According to the ESRI, one in five children now lives below the poverty line once housing costs are factored in, which is a shocking statistic for a country as rich as ours. A survey carried out at the end of 2024 found that almost half of teachers believed that more children than ever before were coming to school hungry and that the direct cause of this hunger is the cost-of-living crisis. According to the CSO, general inflation is under control but food inflation continues to grow at a rate of almost 5%, with the price of staples essential for a child’s development and growth, such as milk, eggs and beef, increasing rapidly. Nobody doing their weekly shop can have avoided noticing their increasing bills. Two years ago, Barnardos reported that 24% of parents borrowed money just to feed a child, 12% use a food bank and 41% - nearly half – of parents skipped or reduced their own meals to feed a child.

Going to school hungry and going to bed hungry are realities which seem to have become normal, even acceptable, to some. They are not normal, they will never be normal and they will never be acceptable. Around 300,000 electricity customers are now in arrears, many of them families with children. Children living in damp and cold homes cannot thrive and suffer increased levels of ill health which will be with them for the rest of their lives. Electricity bills have risen by 69% and gas bills by 102% since January 2021. These are staggering increases but inflation figures, whether in food or energy, do not tell the true story of families living in poverty. The choice between heating your home and eating is stark. No child should be homeless yet 5,000 children are homeless currently.

In the forthcoming budget, what real steps will be included to eradicate child poverty? Will there be a policy or strategy to eradicate child poverty? We, as a party, are calling for an outright ban on evictions where children are involved. That is not something that cannot be asked. There should be no way for children to be evicted into homelessness. I ask for clarification on the commitments to protect children that go beyond the provision of school meals. I raised this on the Order of Business last week. School meals are really welcome but they are not enough. If a child is living in poverty now, what will that mean for his or her future? I want to know the exact steps that are coming in the budget.