90,000 children living in poverty

UP TO 90,000 children are still living in poverty because the Government has failed to adequately increase child benefit payments or provide medical cards, it was claimed yesterday.

The Government promised to increase child benefit by 32 a month and give 200,000 people on low incomes a medical card before the general election, Children's Rights Alliance chief executive Raymond Dooley said.

But the Government has failed to deliver on the extra medical cards and only raised child benefit by 8 a month in the last Budget, Mr Dooley said.

"If the Government had delivered on these two promises it would have gone a long way towards taking 90,000 Irish children out of the consistent poverty trap," he added.

The Children's Rights Alliance has joined with six other groups to lobby the Government to end child poverty by 2007.

The End Child Poverty Coalition was launched by Minister for Children Brian Lenihan yesterday. It includes Barnardos, the National Youth Council of Ireland, People with Disabilities in Ireland, Focus Ireland, Pavee Point and the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

Responding to the criticism on election promises, Mr Lenihan said: "Tight budgetary constraints did not allow the Government this year to deliver the 200,000 extra medical cards or to increase child benefit by 32 a month."

But Mr Lenihan said ending child poverty was a key aim of the National Child Strategy. Much progress had been made in the past nine years in reducing the number of children living in consistent poverty from 24% to just over 8%, he said, adding the Government aims to cut that to 2% over the next five years.

But the End Child Poverty Coalition said the Government has so far failed to deliver on the basic commitments in the National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS) launched less than a year ago.

"This strategy gave a commitment to not only tackle child poverty but to eliminate it by 2007 our coalition intends to keep lobbying the Government until it delivers on that promise," Mr Dooley said.

Consistent poverty is the accepted measure of child poverty. These are children living in households where income is 60% below the national average. One in every 12 Irish children is currently living in consistent poverty.

"These families cannot afford to buy basic food and clothing or provide healthcare for their children without going into major debt," Mr Dooley said.

Mr Lenihan said the Government had invested heavily in child benefit since 1997.

"Work is underway to address social poverty through providing children and young people with the facilities they need to participate fully in their own communities," Mr Lenihan said.