Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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138. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of children living in relative and consistent poverty here; how this compares to the European Union and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14722/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions shows that 134,000 children were living in consistent poverty in 2014 and 222,000 children were at-risk-of-poverty (relative poverty).

Neither Eurostat nor the OECD produces a measure equivalent to the Irish measure of consistent poverty.

Eurostat data find that 209,000 children were living in relative poverty in Ireland in 2014. This is a lower number than the national figure, reflecting minor differences in the income concept and the equivalence scale between the measures. The total number of children in relative poverty in the EU overall in 2014 was estimated by Eurostat at 19.9 million. A comparable OECD figure for 2014 is not available.

Social transfers are a key driver in preventing poverty among children. In 2014, social transfers (excluding pensions) reduced the relative poverty rate for children in Ireland from 44.3% to 17% lifting more than a quarter of all children out of income poverty. Ireland was the second best performing EU-28 member state in 2014 in this regard, with a rate 1.6 times the EU average.

The Government set a child poverty target in 2014 in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: the national policy framework for children and young people 2014-2020. The target is to lift over 70,000 children out of consistent poverty by 2020. Meeting this target means lifting over 97,000 children out of consistent poverty by 2020.

In support of the target, the Government is implementing a whole-of-government approach to tackling child poverty, building on the life-cycle approach in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, 2007-2016and informed by the European Commission Recommendation on ‘Investing in children: Breaking the cycle of disadvantage’. A range of government departments and other stakeholders are involved in implementing this approach.