Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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121. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which her Department proposes to continue to address the issue of child poverty, as outlined in the recently published UNICEF report, with particular reference to identifying and addressing the situation as it relates to the most vulnerable children; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41678/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Social Inclusion Monitor, the official report on progress on poverty using national and EU indicators, reports that the rate of consistent poverty for children in 2012 was 9.9 per cent or 115,000 children. This compares with an average of 8.7 per cent for the years preceding the crisis (2005-2008) or 91,000 children. Using the at-risk-of-poverty measure, 18.8 per cent of children were in poverty in 2012, as compared with 20.8 per cent in the years preceding the crisis. Compared with EU member states, Ireland was ranked 12th of 28th in 2012, an improvement of two places on 2008.

The Government has already adopted a key recommendation of the UNICEF report - to make an explicit commitment to end child poverty - by setting a child poverty sub-target in April 2014, which is to lift 70,000 children out of poverty by 2020. The Department of Social Protection helps to prevent child poverty by providing income support for families through child benefit, qualified child increases for welfare recipients, family income supplement and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, amounting to €2.3 billion in 2014. Through these and other social transfers, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for children is reduced from 45 per cent to 18.8 per cent, a poverty reduction effect of 59 per cent.

Ireland is amongst the best performing member states in the EU in this regard. In Budget 2015, the Government committed a further €96 million for children, including an increase of €5 per month in child benefit.

In order to break the cycle of child poverty where this arises, the Government invests in prevention and early intervention services targeted at disadvantaged children through the Area Based Childhood programme and the DEIS programme.

Finally, a key way to tackle child poverty is to get parents back to work. Through Pathways to Work and the Action Plan on Jobs, the Government is putting people into real jobs, while the family income supplement and new back to work family dividend supports parents to take up and remain in employment , especially those furthest from the labour market.