One in five under-fives in jobless households

Ireland has the EU’s highest proportion of young children in homes where nobody is working, creating a risk of further generational poverty and educational disadvantage.

The Department of Education is already stretched to finance enough classrooms and teachers for Europe’s proportionately second-biggest child population. But the need for extra resources in schools could rise further, based on latest figures in relation to the social background of future primary pupils.

The numbers here aged under-six make up just under 10% of the population, lower only than the figure in Turkey, according to a European Commission report on early childhood education and care (ECEC). And of all Irish homes in which those children aged five or younger live, one in five has nobody working.