Child poverty figures
Deputy Clarke highlights ESRI figures indicating that about 260,000 children live below the poverty line. The Taoiseach questions the relative-poverty methodology and points to school meals, free books, education supports and increased child payments.
Recent ESRI research shows that child poverty has risen sharply. After housing costs, some 260,000 children are living below the poverty line. I want the Taoiseach to picture a classroom with 30 children and I want him to imagine seven of those kids. That is the equivalent proportion of children who are now living below the poverty line in this State. It would take 5,000 52-seater buses to fit all of those kids. That would stretch from Leinster House to Glendalough.
I know that the Taoiseach is going to come back to me and talk about hot school meals and they are welcome, but a hot school meal does not lift a child or a family out of poverty. It does not pay their rent or heat their home. I know that the Taoiseach is going to talk about the strong economy, but that is not going to put a coat on a single child's back this winter. What specific measures will the Government take in budget 2027 to tackle child poverty and to lift children and families out of deprivation?
Comment on this
I want to make one fundamental point. The methodology used in that is open to question, in my view. Anyone below 60% of the median income is adjudged to be in poverty. I do not necessarily go along with the relative poverty approach. Consistent poverty and deprivation is a more accurate measure.
The Deputy spoke about DEIS. DEIS does not get measured.
Comment on this
I apologise; the Deputy referred to a school classroom. In DEIS schools, there are much-reduced pupil-teacher ratios. She was quite dismissive of the hot school meals not being measured-----
Comment on this
That is €1,100 to a parent with one child. It is €1,700. That is not to be dismissed. It does not get factored into those surveys. Free schoolbooks were not. To me, preventing poverty is, first of all, about guaranteeing children access to education, food and good, regular hot meals, and also ensuring that their families have supportive incomes, which we do through the social protection system, and we have substantially increased the child support payments, with record increases. They were not incremental, as the researchers described them. It was actually a record level of increase.