Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 November 2023
1. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an overview of the report published by his Department on 14 November 2023 on how budget 2024 dealt with child poverty and child well-being. [50712/23]
View answer2. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an overview on the report published by his Department on 14 November 2023 on how budget 2024 dealt with child poverty and child well-being. [50713/23]
View answer3. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an overview on the report published by his Department on 14 November 2023 on how budget 2024 dealt with child poverty and child well-being. [50714/23]
View answer4. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an overview on the report published by his Department on 14 November 2023 on how budget 2024 dealt with child poverty and child well-being. [51893/23]
View answer5. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an overview of the report published by his Department on 14 November 2023 on how budget 2024 dealt with child poverty and child well-being. [52316/23]
View answer6. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an overview on the report published by his Department on 14 November 2023 on how budget 2024 dealt with child poverty and child well-being. [52322/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 6, inclusive, together.
The report, Breaking the Cycle: New Measures in Budget 2024 to Reduce Child Poverty and Promote Well-being, describes the enhanced steps the Government is taking to help children to realise their potential and escape intergenerational poverty. While the most substantial investment the Government makes in reducing child poverty is through existing programmes and expenditures, this report provides a whole-of-government overview of new and additional spending in budget 2024. Budget 2024 strongly reflects my focus on reducing child poverty and improving child well-being. It does so in a joined-up way which seeks to make progress on the six priorities identified in the child poverty and well-being programme plan, From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being 2023-2025. In developing their budget plans, every Minister and their Department considered their contribution to ending child poverty and promoting child well-being. This is the first time we sought to co-ordinate spending plans on child poverty and child well-being.
According to the ESRI, measures taken in the budget will lead to reductions in child poverty through both the one-off cost-of-living package measures and permanent changes. Based on last year’s census, this means that approximately 22,000 fewer children will be at risk of poverty next year. While we have more to do, this progress represents significantly fewer children living with financial uncertainty next year. The once-off cost-of-living measures are temporary measures which will help people with recent price increases, and they alone will reduce the at-risk-of-poverty rate for children by 1.3%. Permanent measures include changes to social protection rates, such as increases in the qualified child allowance and changes to the threshold for the working family payment. These will reduce the at-risk-of-poverty rate for children by a further 0.5%. Taken together, the ESRI projects that budget 2024 will reduce the at-risk-of-poverty rate for children from 16.6% to 14.8%. ESRI and Department of Finance analysis also shows that the budget will have a positive effect on the weekly household disposable income of lone parents. Help for lone parents is particularly important in reducing child poverty.
While helping household incomes is fundamental in our ambition to provide every child with the best start, the budget also reflects a much wider commitment to ensure children realise their potential and escape the intergenerational cycle of poverty. This can be seen in a range of long-term investments for children in poverty, such as measures to reduce educational disadvantage, the national childcare scheme and the extension of free GP care to children. These investments are how we will create lasting and far-reaching change in children’s lives. What this report reveals is that our new focus is accelerating and deepening our ambition in this critical area.
When we published the child poverty and well-being programme just a couple of months ago, we set out an initial 2.5-year plan.
This is the first budget in the programme and establishes the groundwork for increased co-ordination on action on child poverty and child well-being in the coming years.
I was listening attentively to Deputy Ó Broin. I think he may be correct that most people in emergency accommodation are there for six to 12 months and not six to nine months, which is what I may have said. I think he said that only applies to Dublin but I will have to double-check that point.
The numbers are creeping up though.
That is true.
I welcome the first cross-government report on the budget measures to reduce child poverty and promote child well-being. While progress on the six areas identified in the child poverty and well-being programme has been made, there are huge issues. I welcome DEIS and huge money has been invested in schools but almost half of children living in poverty have little access to these supports as they are in non-DEIS schools. The home school community liaison scheme needs to be extended to all these schools. Children living in poverty can be vulnerable to dropping out and parents can struggle to access a school place. We only have 120 educational welfare officers to work with thousands of pupils. We need more of them because we have more than 4,000 schools.
Here is an example. I know of a child who started school in September, needs a hoist for mobility and whose mother had to go to the school to lift the child in and out of the chair because the hoist that was there was unavailable. She is getting one but I have children waiting on speech and language therapy. There have been improvements and I welcome them but there are still huge concerns.
Like Deputy Murnane O'Connor, I acknowledge the progress made to date, particularly in school transport and the provision of free schoolbooks. That is to be welcomed but there is one issue on which we are lagging behind and it was highlighted in Breaking the Cycle, which the Taoiseach mentioned. It is supporting service integration. The report earmarked funding of approximately €6.5 million for the integration of CDNTs, specifically the provision of 125 therapy assistants across all disciplines. How many of those 125 therapy assistants have been employed up to now? Is the Taoiseach aware that in Carrigaline special school in Cork, which has been in existence for only one year, to this day there is no access to services or therapy for children in the school by the HSE and service providers?
I too welcome the commitment when the Taoiseach took office to have a child poverty initiative and to have the report. We should note not only did the ESRI say the budget is progressive but it also went on to say it reduces the at-risk-of-poverty rates for most groups. However, we have to work on lone parents and those with disability in their family. There is more work for us to do there.
The Pobal deprivation index has shown people’s circumstances have improved and has put us back to 2006 levels but the gap is widening. There are more people in the extremely or very disadvantaged category; of course, there are more people in the country and that is connected. One of the ways we have done that is area-based interventions. I know next week the Taoiseach’s Department will meet stakeholders in Ballymun to begin the process of putting in place that area-based intervention. Perhaps a way to do it would be to have an automatic trigger when a deprivation index goes below a certain rating so that agency responses are put in place.
One of the major obstacles to child welfare is access to suitable secure housing accommodation. I highlight the case of a young mother, Jamie, with two children, Cody and Brody, aged two and four, who have both been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. This is probably a unique diagnosis in the world. The doctors do not know of any other. She is living with her two children in a very damp flat where they are constantly getting infections in their chest and having to take antibiotics. It is totally inappropriate for children with cystic fibrosis. They need a particular type of accommodation. She has been on the list having her priority assessed for a year but, despite all the doctors’ evidence being provided, she still has not had her priority application assessed. I ask the Taoiseach to seriously look into this particularly difficult and distressing case.
I raise the threat that Children at Risk in Ireland, CARI, will be forced to close after 34 years as the only national child sexual abuse agency. It has been told by Tusla that it will fund only 30% of CARI's over €1 million operating costs for 2024. It cannot fundraise enough to cover the rest. Therefore, unless the amount is increased, it will face closure.
Child sexual abuse is not simply an historical problem. In the first half of 2023, there were nearly 4,000 cases of suspected child physical or sexual abuse. CARI is a national organisation providing, for example, outside Dublin long-term therapeutic supports – it is the only one doing so – to children aged three to 18 affected by child sexual abuse and their families. It desperately needs this funding. This is a crucial issue for children’s well-being. Will the Government provide the funding so CARI can have a five-year plan, provide for fundraising into the future and put itself on a sustainable footing?
I thank Deputies for their questions. Deputy Murnane O'Connor mentioned DEIS schools and the need for more educational welfare officers. We always need to remind ourselves that, while many children experience disadvantage in DEIS schools, most children who experience disadvantage are not in DEIS schools. That is why extending the hot school meals programme to non-DEIS schools is really important and is being pursued by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and it is why I am so supportive of the Minister, Deputy Foley, in making sure free schoolbooks are provided on a universal basis. Just applying it to DEIS schools would leave out a huge number of children who suffer disadvantage but do not go to such schools. Nobody wants to see a means-testing system for something like schoolbooks. That is why we have gone for a universal basis. I agree on the need to improve the provision of therapies. That is why we are training more therapists.
I will have to come back to Deputy O'Sullivan on the question around CDNTs and therapy assistants. I do not have those figures.
Deputy McAuliffe pointed out budget 2024 is progressive, that lone parent households benefit the most and that it will reduce child poverty. It is important we build on that in future budgets. I agree with him on the value of area-based action and the work that needs to be done in Ballymun. We have seen good results in Drogheda.
What happened last Thursday night is a huge blow to people living in the north-east inner city. Some people will try to say the task force and investment there have not worked. I do not agree with that. I have been there many times and know what is being invested in the north-east inner city has made a difference to the lives of thousands of people living in that part of our capital city. Some people will say, incorrectly, that those involved in the disturbances and rioting were from the area but it is interesting to put on the record of the Dáil, as mentioned in an article in The Irish Times today, that of the 38 people arrested last Thursday, only three had addresses in Dublin 1. The majority of the people who burned parts of our city and did what they did were not local people from inner-city Dublin; they were from all over Dublin and came in with a view to causing trouble. Some came from outside of Dublin. I hope that gives people in the north-east inner city some reassurance that that is understood and we will continue to be behind regeneration projects in the north-east inner city.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of two young boys. I did not catch their names but he said they had a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy, which is an extremely rare dual diagnosis. I am certain it is an exceptional case. Allocations are a matter for the local authority but I am happy to look into it and see if I can help, if the Deputy will pass on the details to my office.
Deputy Murphy raised CARI, which provides a hugely valuable service which we need to continue.
I am advised by the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, that an additional allocation has been made for this year to allow CARI to continue its work for the rest of this calendar year and that it will try to sort out arrangements for 2024 with Tusla.
