Child poverty - Inaction is an expensive mistake

FOR a nation that claims to cherish all its children equally, Ireland’s failure to tackle the persistent problem of child poverty is absolutely shameful.

Year in, year out the annual report of Barnardos, the country’s principal children’s charity, turns the spotlight on the appalling conditions confronting tens of thousands of Irish children mired in poverty.

This in a society where wedding guests will tomorrow toast a bride with 1,000 bottles of vintage Dom Perignon at a cost of €100,000.