Róisín Shortall
Question:329 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps, if any, he is taking to tackle child poverty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21131/99]
Written Answers. - Child Poverty.
The Government has decided to develop a national children's strategy to position child and youth related issues more centrally and more explicitly in public policy development and decision making in a more co-ordinated way. The strategy will also seek to build on the efforts of statutory, voluntary and community agencies in a renewed commitment to develop more child focused services. It will address the needs of children and young people up to the age of 18, with special regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is intended to publish the strategy next year.
In the meantime to improve cross departmental co-operation on child care issues a team, drawn from the Departments of Social, Community and Family Affairs, Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform, under the direction of a principal officer from my Department, has been established.
The issues surrounding child poverty and the provision of services for disadvantaged children are of major concern to this Government which has introduced a range of initiatives to promote the welfare of children and strengthen family support services. These include the launching of the springboard and youth homelessness initiatives, the further development of services under the Child Care Act, 1991, and the introduction of the Children Bill this year.
In January 1998, the Government established the young people at risk programme, which has at its centre the young people's facilities and services fund. The Exchequer is contributing £30 million to the fund over three years to support a variety of capital and non-capital projects in disadvantaged areas. I was given approval by the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion to spend £7.2 million to establish the springboard initiatives under which 15 pilot projects for children at risk have been set up. These projects are designed to strengthen co-ordination and co-operation between statutory and voluntary agencies in providing services for vulnerable children, who are at risk of going into care or engaging in anti-social behaviour, and their families.
I have also established teenage parenting support projects in Galway, Limerick and Dublin to identify single young parents who are deemed medium risk at ante-natal stage. Once identified, it is proposed to provide a range of necessary support services through pregnancy and beyond for the mother and her child.
The Government recently announced the development of a strategy to address youth homelessness which will involve the public and private sectors in a joint initiative to develop a more strategic and planned approach to ensure that no child is homeless. In addition, a Forum on Youth Homelessness has now been established in the Eastern Health Board region with representation from the key voluntary organisations, Dublin Corporation and the Eastern Health Board.
A sum of £1 million was allocated to the Eastern Health Board this year for a special initiative involving the voluntary sector, to tackle homelessness. The initiative will further develop services such as an after care service; a day reception programme and transitional care for homeless girls. A crash pad facility for homeless young people with serious behavioural or drug problems is also being developed with the co-operation of the public, private and voluntary sector and is due to come on stream in 2000.
In addition the Government recently published the Children Bill. While this mainly deals with issues concerning juvenile justice, it also provides a statutory basis for the provision of services for children with behavioural difficulties. It provides for the establishment of family welfare conference, which health boards will be obliged to convene where a child in its area may require special care or protection. The conference will provide a system for the early identification of children at risk and a means of providing support and assistance for the child and his or her family through inter-agency intervention.
The Deputies will also be aware that the Partnership 2000 Expert Working Group on Childcare under the auspices of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, examined the provision of a co-ordinated national framework for the development of a child care infrastructure including the financing and resourcing implications of its implementation. The report of the group was launched on 3 February 1999. The Government established an interdepartmental committee on childcare chaired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to evaluate, cost and prioritise the proposals in the report and the child care proposals in An Action Programme for the Millennium, the report of the Commission on the Family and the Report of the Forum on Early Childhood Education. The report of the committee has been noted by Government who have referred the report for consideration to a ministerial group.
Health boards provide financial supports to certain pre-school services which cater for children who are regarded as being at-risk or disadvantaged. This function is in keeping with the boards overall responsibilities under the Child Care Act, 1991, in regard to the promotion of the welfare of children and provision of family support services. Funding of approximately £3.26 million is being provided by the health boards towards the service in 1999. The number of places currently funded is 7,000 approximately.
Other relevant initiatives include a Social Services Inspectorate which was recently established. Initially the inspectorate will concentrate on the child care area but in the longer term its remit will extend to all the social services. The main function of the inspectorate is to support the child care services by promoting and ensuring the development of quality standards in the personal social services. Also, the appointment of an ombudsman for children has been identified as a priority and will be a crucial mechanism in vindicating children's rights in this country.
The incidence of child poverty is a particular concern of this Government and successive budget measures, along with targeted policy initiatives, have sought to ensure that our children are protected and given the opportunities to break an inter-generational cycle of poverty.
The latest ESRI figures from the Living in Ireland survey show that the percentage of children experiencing consistent poverty fell from 18-23 per cent in 1994 to 15-17 per cent in 1997, while the numbers living in households below the 50 per cent relative income line fell from 29 per cent in 1994 to 24 per cent in 1997. This reduction in child poverty is largely attributable to falling unemployment levels which have enabled many families to release themselves from dependency on social welfare payments and improve their incomes. Under this Government, there have been further record increases in employment. The unemployment rate for the period March to May 1999, the latest figures available, was 5.7 per cent.
At the launch of the first annual report of the national anti-poverty strategy's inter-departmental policy committee in June, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs announced that the Government had asked the committee to consider setting targets in relation to particular groups such as children in poverty. Discussions are still at a very early stage and it must be recognised that child poverty is a complex problem, the alleviation of which requires policy responses on a number of fronts. The preparation of a national children's strategy will form a major input into this process.
The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs also has a major role in regard to this issue. One of the central means by which child poverty can be tackled is child benefit. The link between the risk of poverty and family size has been firmly established and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affair's provision of income support in respect of children plays a crucial role in combating the incidence of child poverty. Child benefit channels resources directly to families and is of particular importance to families on low incomes. As it is universal, not taxable and not assessed as means for other secondary benefits such as differential rents, medical cards, etc., it does not act as a disincentive to taking up employment or improving wages.
The 1999 budget provided for child benefit increases of £3 per month to £34.50 for each of the first two children and £4 per month to £46 for the third and all subsequent children. Some 523,000 families with a total of 1.2 million children have benefited from these increases. The full year cost of these increases is £40.76 million and the total projected spend on child benefit in 1999 is £446 million. In addition, the 1999 budget pro vided for an increase in the family income supplement threshold of £8 per week which, alongside last year's introduction of FIS calculation on a net income basis, means that thousands of families are better off as a result.
Another key factor in combating the incidence of poverty, including child poverty, relates to the adequacy of the payments made under the various schemes. Increases in the 1999 budget mean that all social welfare payments have now reached or exceeded the minimum level recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare.
The range of measures outlined above reflects the Government's multidimensional approach to tackling child poverty. The Government will continue in its efforts in this regard and will bring forward further initiatives and a framework for better co-ordination and integration of services to children in the context of the national children's strategy.