Child Poverty
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

I do not think the Minister is in any danger of leaving people worse off just because he thinks the measurement might be off. With the greatest of respect, I think that is a bit of a nonsense argument. The Minister can see the trend and what way it is going. I do not want to get into an argument because there are people at home who, God love them, might be watching this wondering what we are talking about. This is about child poverty, yet they would see the Minister and me arguing about the figures. The measurement the ESRI gives us is a very important one, as is the fact that it gives its own narrative opinion, which is that the Government is very far from meeting its target. This is a fact. The ESRI is a very respected institution. Its estimation of what the Government and the Minister's Department are doing is that they are very far from meeting their target. There seems to be a huge gap between talking about an additional rate of child benefit and doing it. I sincerely hope the Minister does not wait until just before the next election before rolling out a package because people, and children in particular, need that support now.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24