Child poverty reduction target ‘a challenge’: Critics say Government unlikely to elevate 95,000 children by 2020

The Government has been criticised for setting 2020 as a target for reducing child poverty. It is unlikely to be met.

The National Policy Framework for Children and Young People, published by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in 2014, included a target to reduce by two-thirds the number of children in consistent poverty by 2020. That target means lifting 95,000 children out of poverty.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty has said that 2015 did see the first reduction since 2008 in the number of children affected.