John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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98. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress against the national target for reducing the number of children experiencing consistent poverty; whether a new target has been set for the reduction in the numbers of children living in poverty in the period to the end of 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21676/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is keenly aware of child poverty issues and is also conscious of the impact of cost-of-living increases in 2023 and 2024.

The Government's concern to address these issues are reflected both in the creation of a child poverty unit in the Department of An Taoiseach and in the development of recent Budget packages.

The budget packages, which were the largest in the history of the State contained a number of important measures with a specific focus on helping children and families, including significant increases to the Child Support Payment, one-off or bonus payments to families on welfare payments and double child benefit payments. In addition the free school books and Hot-school meals programmes were rolled out over the period.

Given how the Central Statistics Office Survey of Income and Living Conditions is complied, it will take some time for the impact of these measures to be fully reflected in official statistics, however post budget research from my Department and the ESRI indicates that recent budgets have been progressive in improving outcomes for low-income households.

Nevertheless we cannot be complacent, particularly as poverty is a measured in relative terms; it is, as a result, a moving target with the poverty line getting higher as incomes in society generally increase.

That is why the the commitment in Roadmap for Social Inclusion to set a new national child poverty target was reiterated in the Programme for Government. To deliver on this commitment, a consultation process on the setting of a new child poverty target concluded last year, with 10 submissions received from a range of stakeholders.

These submissions are now being reviewed. As part of this process the Department of the Taoiseach has convened meetings with stakeholders to discuss the Child Poverty Target and measures to reduce child poverty. Officials from my Department have attended these meetings and, arising from these discussions, I expect to shortly submit a proposal to Government on a new national child poverty target together with proposals to help achieve this target.