Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 476: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on the recent statistics that show that up to 100,000 children are vulnerable to hardship, poverty and malnutrition in our country; and her plans to address this new finding. [18226/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I assume that the Deputy is referring to the results of the CSO's Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2010 for which the full results were recently published and to the fact that the consistent poverty rate for the 0-17 age-group was 8.1 per cent in 2010 (roughly equivalent to 100,000 persons).

The consistent poverty measure includes those households that experience basic deprivation (enforced lack of 2 out of 11 items) and whose income falls below 60% of median equivalised household income. The list of deprivation measure includes two food-related items (eating a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day; having a roast joint or its equivalent once a week) but it does not directly seek to measure malnutrition in the population.

The Government is acutely aware of the need to address child poverty as a priority. Plans to tackle child poverty are outlined in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPSincl) and in the Programme for Government. The Government is committed to achieving the targets in the NAPSincl to reduce the number of people experiencing poverty. These targets are currently being reviewed to ensure that they continue to be appropriate and achievable.

A multi-dimensional approach to tackling child poverty is needed to take into account income supports, services and parental access to employment. The overriding objective for the Government is to increase employment, promote activation, skills training and education and thus build real and sustainable economic growth and to protect those who are most vulnerable in our society. The Programme for Government sets out the framework to achieve these aims. New initiatives such as Pathways to Work will help to facilitate those who have been long-term unemployed to re-enter the labour market. The highest rates of poverty are in jobless households and households that have limited engagement with the labour market. These groups include lone parent families, unemployed people with disabilities and unemployed families. Children in jobless households are three times more likely to experience consistent poverty than children generally.

The Government has endeavoured insofar as it could to limit changes in social welfare to avoid any general reduction in primary weekly welfare payments. Additional supports to families on low incomes such as child-related increases to social welfare payments and the family income supplement have remained unchanged, even as other changes, such as the standardisation of Child Benefit, are an important step in introducing a more appropriate system of child income supports.

The poverty reduction effect after social transfers also demonstrates that the social protection system is protecting children at risk. In 2010, social transfers (excluding pensions) reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate by 60 per cent. From 2004 to 2009 (most recent data for children), the poverty reduction effect of social transfers for children's at-risk-of-poverty rate increased from 43 per cent to 60 per cent. This reflects concerted State intervention and investment in the social protection system during this period.

This Department also works closely with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) in relation to these issues. In this context, it is worth noting that my colleague, Frances Fitzgerald T.D., Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, plans to enhance the role of early intervention and support programmes for the most vulnerable children and their families in the context of the new Child and Family Support Agency.