AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Child poverty sounds like a phrase which should belong back in Victorian times in tales like Charles Dickens’s ‘Oliver Twist’ or involve Tom the dirty chimney sweep in Charles Kingsley’s ‘Water Babies’. Hungry orphan Oliver has to live by his wits as a thief, while the luckless Tom is driven up chimneys to act as a human brush by the horrible Mr Grimes.
But child poverty is very much still with us, despite Ireland being the second richest country in Europe (eighth richest if the distorting effect of multinationals is calculated in).
The latest ESRI report out this month found, shockingly, that in 2024 one child in every five was below the poverty line when housing costs are taken into account. What is more, the rate of child poverty for those with children under five has been rising consistently from 2018 to 2024, nearly doubling. Despite Micheál Martin’s promise to reduce the rate to 3% by 2030, the figure is going in the wrong direction and stood at 8% in 2024. Since then the housing crisis has worsened and the cost of living has increased.
Why isn’t the picture improving and what can be done to lift children, who are our future, out of deprivation?
Firstly, being poor, where children are in families with incomes 60% below the median figure, goes deeper than money. It means going without things like heating and nutrition that the rest of us take for granted but also lack of access to things that should be part of childhood. The report found that 10% of children under 16 were not able to take part in school trips, regular leisure activities or have new clothes – they become have-nots.
There is no mystery about the causes involved in poverty and deprivation; the cost of housing, low incomes, one-parent families, disability and unemployment are all factors. The question is how to offset their long-term effect on children which can result in reduced education prospects, poor health and employment opportunities. If the Government took the decision that we can afford to spend €700m on lowering the VAT rate for the hospitality industry to 9%, surely they can afford to prioritise children?
A plethora of measures have been put in place under the Child Poverty and Well Being Office in the Department of the Taoiseach, including hot school meals, free books, increased back-to-school and fuel allowances which, while they may help, have resulted only in a slight reduction in child poverty and haven’t impacted the overall problem.
With the October Budget looming and a tsunami of price increases on the way, Opposition parties are keen to see that further, more effective measures are taken. Labour are advocating a targeted tier of child benefit for disadvantaged families which would go further than existing payments.
“Costs are rapidly rising for families,” Labour leader Ivana Bacik pointed out recently. “Public transport fares will increase by over 15%, while electricity and gas costs are steadily rising. Rising household costs will force more and more children into poverty. Excise reductions are holding down the price of petrol and diesel for drivers, but with 80% of our food imported, higher oil prices will drive up the cost of groceries.”
There are glaringly obvious things which would make a difference not only for low-income families but for all parents, like the long-promised reduction in childcare costs and effective support for creches. It would make sense too to make sure that Tusla’s Family Resource Centres, where the focus is on early intervention (there are 136 community-based centres around the country), are sufficiently resourced to meet the increasing demand for child and parenting support.
Nordic countries often have the best record when it comes to safeguarding vulnerable children and Iceland has an imaginative solution to ensure that those near the poverty line don’t miss out in the form of an activity voucher to a certain value, giving them access to after-school and recreational activities, something that could be copied here.
A change of attitude might help too. Books like Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist helped to change attitudes from a poorhouse mentality where the poor were blamed for their misfortunes. In Iceland, supports for children in low-income families are regarded not as handouts but as an investment in the future.
Our children are our future too.
