ECPC Recommendations to Government

1. Increase basic social welfare payments for families

• Ensure that the value of basic social welfare payments to poor families (e.g. One-parent Family Payment, Jobseekers’ Allowance etc) is above the ‘at risk’ of poverty threshold

• Increase the Qualified Child Increase, a targeted child income support for the poorest families in the State, so that it can contribute in a real way to lifting the incomes of poor families above the ‘at risk’ of poverty threshold.

2. Provide access to quality, affordable and flexible Early Childhood Care and Education

• Provide universal, free, quality pre-school places for all children aged 3 to 4 years by implementing the NESF’s blueprint for universal access to ECCE. The roll-out of these places should begin with children who are disadvantaged.

• Introduce a subsidised ECCE system for children aged 1 to 4 years, and afterschool care for children between 4 and 14 years based on family income, to facilitate parents to participate in full time employment, training or education.

3. Tackle educational disadvantage

• Provide resources to fully implement the DEIS Strategy (2005) and the Traveller Education Strategy (2006), two Action Plans for educational inclusion.

• Reduce class sizes in accordance with commitments in Towards 2016 and the Programme for Government 2007-2012

4. Increase medical card eligibility for families

• Double the income threshold for the full medical card for families with children under 6 years of age.

• Commit to extend the medical card scheme to cover all children under 18 years.

5. Ensure every family has prompt access to a secure, affordable and appropriate home

• Build or acquire an additional 10,000 social housing units per annum for the next three years

• Make Rent Supplement more employment friendly by bringing the means assessment into line with differential rent schemes and enhance families’ access to the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). For those awaiting transfer to RAS accommodation, use the relevant differential rent formula, rather than the Rent Supplement assessment, to determine rent.

6. Support families in low paid work by enhancing the Family Income Supplement (FIS) scheme

• Increase the income thresholds for the Family Income Supplement (FIS).

• Raise the payment rate of FIS, and make its payment automatic to eligible families.