Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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34. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the actions she will take to address the increasing child poverty rates here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47005/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Government policy around tackling poverty for children and families has recently been articulated in the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People: Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, which adopted a child-specific social target for poverty reduction aiming to lift 70,000 children out of poverty by 2020, equivalent to a reduction of two-thirds on the 2011 rate.

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.

Of course 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. The family income supplement and new back to work family dividend - which I provided for in Budget 2015 - will support parents to take up and remain in employment, especially those furthest from the labour market.