Barnardos urge investment in needy families
Launching its pre-budget submission, the children’s charity said that vulnerable families had already borne the brunt of cuts and the Government needed to ensure no further harm was done.
Barnardos CEO Fergus Finlay said the current row over pension entitlements, which he likened to “tax avoidance”, contrasted with the fact the budget could rive more children into hunger, cold, and fear.
“What we are looking for this year in my view is extremely modest,” he said.
Catherine Joyce, head of advocacy at Barnardos, said successive budgets had targeted the worst-off, so much so that the poorest 10% of the population had seen their incomes fall by 26% in recent years — resulting in children living in damp, cold houses, going hungry and falling behind at school.
“The immediate and ongoing impact of the recession on these children is profound,” she said.
She called for payments such as the one-parent family payment and child benefit to be maintained.
She said the Government needed to target “poverty traps” where those in lower paid jobs were better off on social welfare, and tackle the cost of childcare.
Toby Wolfe of Start Strong said tentative plans to introduce a Scandinavian system of early childhood care could be achieved in the longer term, although not by 2014 as hinted at by Joan Burton, the social protection minister.
But he said such a system would end up saving the State money in the long term, although the quality of early childhood care would need to improve.
Ms Joyce said the Government should protect the current free pre-school year and introduce a second, earlier free year for children.
Mr Wolfe said proposed changes to the one-parent family payment should be withdrawn until such time a new childcare system is in place.
TDs Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Mattie McGrath were among those at the launch.
Mr Finlay warned if the Child and Family Support Agency — due to assume control of the care system next year from the HSE — does not receive a budget of at least €600m in its first year, it would fail.
“It will spend its first year wondering how to cut costs rather than help children,” he said, calling on TDs to keep an eye on the issue when the book of estimates is published.
Barnardos has also called for the retention of rates for payments such as rent supplement and the Back to school Clothing and Footwear Allowance.
* www.barnardos.ie
An increasing number of families in towns around the country are so cash-strapped they have left their homes to live in B&Bs and hotels, Barnardos staff said yesterday.
Olive Carter and Theresa Clancy from Barnardos in Thurles, Co Tipperary, said it had dealt with a handful of families in the past year who had switched from rented housing to a single room in a hotel because they were effectively homeless.
The charity’s office in the town has dealt with 55 families in the past year, including 21 children, often providing them with early intervention services and family supports.
A small number of those families have become homeless because of the difference between the cost of renting and the ceiling on rent supplement.
“There is no space for the children, no room to play,” Olive said. “You can’t cook a meal for them in a single room.”
Both said more “joined up thinking” was needed to ensure families did not continue to struggle, yet at the same time the very early intervention services provided by Barnardos in the area are under strain due to financial pressures and a lack of state funding.
Affordable childcare, better public transport and regulation of money lenders were also listed as issues, with Theresa stating that the period before and after Christmas often left a “financial and emotional aftermath” for families already living on the edge.
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