Gary Gannon
Question:4. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the steps she intends to take to eradicate child poverty. [6395/23]
View answerThursday, 9 February 2023
Questions (4)
Oral answers (10 contributions)
What steps does the Department intend to take to eradicate child poverty, particularly in light of the Taoiseach's remark that a unit would be set up in his Department to combat child poverty?
The Government is committed to the reduction of all forms of poverty, particularly, child poverty, as outlined in the programme for Government and the roadmap for social inclusion 2020 to 2025. Poverty is multidimensional and requires a whole-of-government approach. While income supports are important, access to affordable services such as housing, health, childcare and education are also critical.
Budget 2023 provided a social welfare package worth almost €2.2 billion, which included a range of measures to support children. In addition to the one-off measures paid last year, personal rates of payment on working age schemes have been increased by €12 per week. In addition, the rates of payment for a qualified child has been increased to €42 per week for a child under 12 and €50 per week for a child over 12. I have also significantly increased funding for the school meals programme in recent years. More than €94 million has been provided for school meals in 2023, which is up from approximately €68 million in 2022. These are in addition to other Government measures such as the reduction in childcare costs and the commitment to introduce a free school book scheme for primary school pupils from this autumn. I have just set out in the previous question the benefits that will follow on from changes arising from the work of the child maintenance review group.
The current national child poverty target requires a 66% reduction in the number of children in consistent poverty by the end of 2020 from its 2011 level. Between 2011 and 2021, the consistent poverty rate fell by 4.1 percentage points from 9.3% to 5.2%, so we can see that the measures taken to date have had a positive impact, although we still have further to go.
The roadmap for social inclusion commits us to setting a new child poverty target. My Department and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth are working together to progress this in the context of the development of a new policy framework for children and young people.
Finally I should mention that the Taoiseach is establishing a new child poverty and well-being unit in his Department. The aim of this new unit is to build on what has already been achieved and provide greater focus on improving the lives and well-being of all children in Ireland.
When we ask these questions, we get to throw the ball in the air and the Minister gets to tell us all the great things the Government is doing. It is just the nature of them.
You forget that though.
Exactly. However, 163,936 children in this country still live in consistent poverty according to the data presented last year. These are children without access to two warm coats and if their shoes are damaged, their parents are unable to replace them. Regardless of whether the child goes hungry, there is certainly an adult in his or her house who does.
I welcomed the fact that when the Taoiseach assumed office a couple of months ago, he said he would take this issue seriously. I had a funny image in my mind because he then had a meeting in Davos with Keir Starmer where they were going to talk about child poverty.
Child poverty is corrosive to the human condition. While I understand the measures the Minister is taking, income supports are what we need. I appreciate that welfare supports went up by €12 in the last budget but it is not enough. When will we see income supports going up towards the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, so that welfare supports in this country are not based below a line that automatically places not only the child but his or her family into poverty? Until we address that, all the targeted measures are not going to come to much.
As I said, since 2011, the number of children in consistent poverty has fallen by 45,000 to 62,000 in 2021 and the consistent poverty rate has fallen to 5.2%. I am not disputing that we need to do more but we were making progress. However, we were suddenly faced with a cost-of-living crisis. The Deputy can appreciate that we now need to focus on that. This crisis has had an impact and we need to focus on it. The new child poverty and well-being unit will be established in the Department of the Taoiseach in the first quarter of 2023. The Government is committed to reducing child poverty, as outlined in the programme for Government and the roadmap for social inclusion.
However, poverty is multidimensional and requires a whole-of-government approach to provide the necessary supports. We have increased the qualified child allowance for the past three years and expanded the free school meals programme.
I appreciate fully that poverty is multidimensional. I hope it goes across all Departments. The Ombudsman for Children asked for a child poverty strategy to be embedded in all Departments and I welcome this call.
At its basis, poverty, whether that is childhood poverty or the poverty of a family, is about what a person is being asked to go without, such as food, warm clothes, shoes or the capacity to go to the cinema. That comes down to income.
People have a right to be supported by the social welfare system. When will we see a social welfare rate that enables the child, and the family from which that child comes, to remove themselves from that capacity to go without? Within the lifetime of the Minister's Government, will welfare rates go towards the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, that is required? Until we get to that point, all the cross-departmental supports, which are welcome, will not matter a dot if we are still asking families in this country to go hungry. That is the essence of the matter.
There are other issues as well, as we know, such as the hot school meals programme, one support that is making a significant difference in children's lives in terms of food poverty. I visited a school in Inchicore yesterday and attended an event to encourage children to grow their own. It related to Tidy Towns, which we were promoting in the school. I asked the principal whether the school had the hot school meals programme and he said it could not do without it. We are supporting that and I have expanded it-----
The Minister had to ask whether the school was part of the programme. Action to alleviate poverty cannot be based on a roulette wheel of which schools have hot meals and which do not.
My point is that just over two years, there were 30 schools in the programme, whereas 500 schools now get hot school meals, which is making a significant difference to children's lives. It is better for their educational attainment and, as the principal said, it makes such a difference to the children. I want to see it expanded because it is a great scheme.
I assure the Deputy the Government is totally committed to addressing the issue of child poverty. The Taoiseach has set up a special unit in his Department and by doing that, he can ensure all the Departments will feed into it. He and the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth have met some of the stakeholders to discuss the issues.