Child Poverty
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
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John Connolly (FF), Galway West

Among the priorities of the child poverty and well-being programme in the Taoiseach's Department is to enhance participation in culture, arts and sport for children and young people affected by poverty. In many of our disadvantaged communities, there is an absence of active and passive recreational spaces where children can congregate, come together, enjoy each other's company and generate some positivity from each other. Last year, the Government provided €500,000 spread across all local authorities, a maximum of €20,000 per local authority. We need to increase that funding.
Yesterday, I was in the Headford Road part of Galway city. It is an area of significant population with one of the biggest DEIS schools in the city. It has no playground and very little by way of play spaces or active recreational spaces.
We need to look at this area in terms of disadvantaged communities, and enhancing and further providing facilities for the children of those communities.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21