Child Poverty
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

I do not want to seem ungrateful for the Minister of State's reply but he has said things like, as a relatively high-income country, some households assessed as experiencing poverty in Ireland might not be considered so in other EU countries. They are not paying rent or buying groceries in any other EU country, are they? They are doing all that there. If they are in relative poverty, they are in relative poverty. There is no point telling them they would be well-off if they were living in Spain. They do not live there; they live here. As I said, I do not want to seem ungrateful for the reply but I personally would have been embarrassed to read that out.
The Minister of State referenced the SILC data and the time lag. That is important because these findings are based on incomes in 2024. We all know what happened in 2024. There was an election and, in the run-in to that election, there were energy supports and all sorts of other things. That is all gone now. When the SILC data catches up, it will reflect the fact that energy supports have been withdrawn and that people in this State are paying some of the highest energy prices in Europe. Moreover, families who are living in poverty are more likely to be on pay-as-you-go meters. I am sure the Minister of State sees this in his constituency office just as I do in mine. Those people are paying even higher rates. It is very expensive to be poor in this State.
The SILC data also does not include accommodation costs. That is huge. There are people on ordinary wages who work really hard. If we are making comparisons with other EU countries, in any other EU country, they would be able to expect to go on a holiday or to have a few bob on a Friday night. All of that is gone. They are just paying their rent. Their kids are paying the price for the Government's failure to act on child poverty.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18