Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 June 2025
336. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection for an update on progress toward the Roadmap for Social Inclusion targets specifically relating to child poverty and jobless households; the data sources used to track these targets; his views on the challenges and interventions identified to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33359/25]
View answerThe Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy with the ambitious aim of reducing consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive member states in the EU. The Roadmap was published in January 2020 and contains seven high level goals, with 81 commitments.
Goal four of the Roadmap is "Supporting Families and Children." This goal aims to reduce child poverty in Ireland and to ensure that all families have the opportunity to participate fully in society.
Progress made to date on the delivery of this goal includes:
• Annual increases to the income thresholds for the Working Family Payment.
• Cost-of-living measures targeting families with children.
• Eligibility for GP visit cards was extended to all children under 8 years of age from August 2023.
• The establishment of a Child Poverty and Well-being Programme Office in the Department of the Taoiseach in 2023, who published a cross-Government programme plan, From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Well-being 2023-2025.
• The roll out of the Hot School Meal Programme to all DEIS primary and special schools, with the extension of the Hot School Meals Programme to non-DEIS primary schools commencing in April 2024.
• The launch of Equal Start, a funding model and set of universal and targeted measures to support access to, and participation in, early learning and childcare for children and their families who experience disadvantage, in May 2024.
• The extension of Child Benefit to 18-year-olds in full time education from September 2024
Progress towards achieving the aims of the Roadmap are measured using the Survey of Income and Living Standards (SILC), which is published by the Central Statistics office annually. Additional data comes from the EU-SILC, published by Eurostat, which provides comparisons across the 27 EU member states.
Since the publication of the Roadmap in 2020, consistent poverty for children dropped from 7.7% (approximately 92,000 children) in 2018 to 4.8% (approximately 59,000 children) in 2023, before increasing to 8.5% (approximately 105,000 children) in 2024, as published in SILC data. While this is disappointing, it should be noted that the 2024 data is based on 2023 incomes, therefore not taking account of Budget 2024 or Budget 2025 measures.
However, when looking at the Irish contribution to the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan 2030 Headline Poverty Reduction Target the at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion rate for children has reduced from 25.1% in 2019 to 20.6% in 2024. This equates to a reduction of approximately 53,000 children at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion.
Goal one of the Roadmap is "Expanding the Opportunity of Employment." This goal aims to give everyone who can work the opportunity of employment as a means to improve their well-being.
Progress made to date on the delivery of this goal includes:
• The establishment of the Labour Market Advisory Council, which plays a key role in advising Government on public policy responses to support the labour market recovery.
• The continued implementation and growth of the National Childcare Scheme.
• The publication of the Further Education and Training (FET) Strategy 2020-2024:Transforming Learning in July 2020, The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 to 2025 in April 2021, and Pathways to Work 2021-2025 in July 2021.
• The phased extension of Parent’s Leave and Benefit for each parent to 9 weeks by July 2024.
• Increases to the earnings disregard for those on Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, and Carer's Allowance and Benefit.
• Increases and improvements to bus services under Connecting Ireland, meaning it is easier to access employment opportunities and connect to the wider TFI Network.
Government is fully committed to ensuring that no-one in Ireland is left behind, and implementation of the Roadmap will continue for its remaining term. Additionally, work has commenced in relation to the development of a successor strategy, which the intention is to publish in the first half of 2026.
