Government Must Keep Its Promise to End Child Poverty by 2007

Press Releases - October 13th 2004
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Download End Child Poverty Coalition Pre-Budget Submission 2005 in PDF Format

The End Child Poverty Coalition today called for Budget 2005 to fund the Government’s commitment to end child poverty in Ireland.

At the launch of their Submission for Budget 2005, launched today at 9.30 am by Councillor Michael Conaghan, Lord Mayor of Dublin in the Mansion House, the Coalition outlined their recommendations to Government in relation to the actions required in Budget 2005 to make real and substantial progress towards meeting the commitment to end child poverty in Ireland.

Liz Kerrins of the End Child Poverty Coalition stated, “At least 66,000 children in Ireland live in consistent poverty, and 237,000 live in households with incomes below the poverty line. The National Anti-Poverty Strategy sets 2007 as the target date for eliminating consistent child poverty, and the National Children’s Strategy states that ‘children will be provided with the financial supports necessary to eliminate child poverty’. Budget 2005 must provide the necessary funding and take the required steps to meet those commitments.”

According to John-Mark McCafferty of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, “Budget 2005 must ensure that children receive adequate income support by meeting promised Child Benefit increases, and providing for the first Child Dependant Allowance (CDA) increase since the payment level was frozen in 1994. CDAs target income at the poorest children, including those who parents have a disability, participate in Back to Work and Enterprise Schemes, or parent alone”.

Frances Byrne of One Parent Exchange and Network (OPEN) stated that “Providing access to healthcare to children based on their parent’s income results in poor health for children. For families struggling on low incomes, the high cost of GP visits and prescription medicines can eat away as much as forty per cent of that family’s weekly income. Increasing medical card eligibility will give access to healthcare to children when they need it most, and help end the current inequity in the health system”.

The Coalition’s Pre-Budget Submission focused on a range of supports that will help end child poverty, including the following:

Child Benefit. Budget 2005 should meet the target Child Benefit increases as set out in Sustaining Progress, the National Partnership Agreement. This involves increasing Child Benefit to provide a monthly payment of €149.90 for 1st and 2nd child in a household, and €185.40 for 3rd and subsequent children.

Child Dependant Allowance. Child Benefit alone will not end income poverty among children, and this is reflected in the child poverty statistics. Since 1994, however, the Child Dependant Allowance payment has been effectively frozen, exacerbating child poverty among families in need of welfare assistance. Budget 2005 should increase and equalise CDAs to the universal weekly figure of €28. Budgets 2006 and 2007 should provide for further substantial increases to the payment.

Medical Card for children. The Health Strategy launched in late 2001 contains a Government commitment to substantially expand Medical Card eligibility by increasing income guidelines and by taking particular account of the needs of children. Since then, medical card coverage has actually dropped considerably. Budget 2005 should commence the rollout of the commitment in the Health Strategy to substantially expand Medical Card eligibility by ensuring that the numbers of children and families covered by the medical card should return to at least the 2001 figure during 2005. Budgets 2006 and 2007 should then rollout the Health Strategy commitment on an income related basis.

Build Sufficient Social Housing. According to the most recent Government statistics, at least 50,000 children in over 43,000 households are in housing need. Budget 2005 should provide sufficient funding to acquire, enable and provide 10,000 social housing units in 2005.

National Educational Welfare Service. In 2000, the Government enacted the Education (Welfare) Act which aims to combat educational disadvantage. This Act established the National Educational Welfare Service that, through regional Educational Welfare Officers, encourages school attendance and ensures that young people receive a minimum education. Budget 2005 should adequately resource the National Educational Welfare Board to ensure the full implementation of the Education (Welfare) Act.

Child Poverty is a denial of the basic right of a child to an adequate standard of living, a right guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Government must live up to its obligation and commit the necessary resources to end child poverty in Ireland.

The End Child Poverty Coalition consists of the following seven national non-governmental organisations: Barnardos, Children's Rights Alliance, Focus Ireland, National Youth Council of Ireland, OPEN-One Parent Exchange and Network, Pavee Point, and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

The End Child Poverty Coalition is supported by the Irish Youth Foundation.

For more information, contact: Jo Harding: 086 392 5458
Roughan McNamara: 086 851 5117