Child benefit increase and other measures offer grounds for hope

For a number of years now, I’ve gone over to Buswells Hotel near the Dáil with colleagues from our sector to listen to the budget announcement, and to respond quickly to any media requests for comment.

Every year I’ve walked back to my office at the other end of Dame St, usually angry, often in despair.

The anger was caused by what public policy was doing to children and families who live in a year-long struggle with poverty and all the stresses and strains it brings. The despair was because it has often seemed to me that the damage was irreparable. If you condemn children to consistent poverty, if you cut the income supports and the services they desperately need, if you reduce their life chances at a very young age, you can all too easily produce an entire generation that is disenfranchised and alienated.