I also want to be associated with the expressions of sympathy today, particularly to my colleague, on Helen. Suaimhneas síoraí dá hanam dílis.

I welcome the transition year student who is on placement with me from Summerhill College in Sligo, who is very welcome.

We are going to be speaking about budget submissions. I went to the recent ESRI report conference about poverty, income inequality and living standards. The question of how we measure poverty came up. The Taoiseach was disputed or there was confusion about how we measure poverty. The Taoiseach was cited as saying that the rate of children living in consistent poverty has actually gone down, but it fact it has been rising when we take housing costs into account. I would hope that any debate we are having here over the next couple of weeks, when we are looking at budgets, will include relative income poverty and how much spending power people actually have. This report lines up with the CSO statistics as well. When we are measuring poverty, we see that one in five children lives below the poverty line. When we look at the amount of income people have left after being able to afford new shoes or a decent coat to spend on going out for leisure activities or after-school costs, we see that one in five children in Ireland is living in poverty. Over the years, housing costs have been overlooked in the measurement of poverty. Children who are most at risk of living in poverty are those whose families are in private rented accommodation or in receipt of the housing assistance payment. Their disposable income is left too low and they are left with nothing at the end of the month. Over the next few weeks when we are looking at budget submissions, I hope housing will be included when we are considering children living in poverty.