Harris on child poverty in Ireland: 'This is a wealthy country, we can do better'

Taoiseach Simon Harris during a visit to Ukraine this week. 

Targeted measures are needed in the upcoming budget to tackle child poverty, the Taoiseach has said.

His comments come following new figures that show there has been an increase in the number of children being deprived of basic essentials due to inflation.

About 230,000 children suffered from material deprivation in 2023, an increase of 30,000 children compared with 2022.

Material deprivation tracks the number of people in households unable to afford two or more items from a list of 10 essentials.

Although rates of child poverty have fallen slightly on a before-housing-costs basis, they have increased from 20% in 2020 to 22% in 2023 if housing costs are excluded.

The figures, from the ESRI, prompted the research institute to warn the Government may need to consider policies such as a second rate of child benefit for low-income families in the next budget.

Mr Harris said he was not aware of any specific proposals to introduce such a payment to help struggling families in the upcoming budget, but “no good idea would be off the table”.

“When I met ministers recently I asked all ministers to consider what they can prioritise in their own departments in relation to child poverty. This is a wealthy, successful country, we can do better when it comes to this area and I'm absolutely determined that we will.” 

The Taoiseach promised a further cost-of-living budget on October 1.

He said he was “very eager” to have universal measures to help families, like child benefit — which is paid for every child regardless of the family’s income.

But targeted measures are also necessary to help close the poverty gap, he said. Tackling holiday hunger was one way to deliver targeted supports to those children in most need, he said.

The “very significant expansion” of the school meals programme helps tackle child poverty, he said.

“But schools are closed for significant parts of the year. Children's hunger doesn't go away during those holiday times.

“So to me that sounds like a logical area we could take a policy that we know works and extend it further.

“Government isn't just about economics, it also has to be about society — it's why there is a need for a cost-of-living package and it's absolutely why there is going to be a need to have targeted measures in the budget.”

Immediate help for struggling families would be made through a cost-of-living package in the upcoming budget, Mr Harris said.

Additional measures would be made for medium and long-term help, he said.

“We have a child poverty unit within my department for this very reason to look across all aspects of Government.

“We need to take further action in relation to supporting children and supporting families.” 

He said the ESRI indicators also showed a reduction in deprivation among people over the age of 65, which indicates progress can be made when investment is made.