Pledge to tackle child poverty

MINISTER for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan yesterday promised to urgently deal with the “unacceptable” level of child poverty in Ireland.

Mr Brennan, who was launching a Combat Poverty Agency policy paper, Ending Child Poverty, said it was unacceptable that between 60,000 to 120,000 children were affected by poverty at a time of huge prosperity for the country.

He promised to target three areas to help alleviate the problem: increased and focused child income supports; measures to encourage lone parents back to education and work; and the delivery of thousands of additional childcare places.