Child Poverty Dail Éireann — 2022-03-24 ============================================================ Steven Matthews (GP), Wicklow I know from conversations I have had with the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, that they fully understand the implications of this for children of early ages. I refer to issues such as difficulty in education or homelessness which can have lifelong implications. There is also the pressures on families. I refer to the work we on the housing committee do on homelessness. Our recent work in supporting local authorities to produce more housing, including cost-rental and affordable housing, will have a significant impact in that regard. There is positive and good work being done on this. I am particularly interested in the guarantee for children in need of effective and free access to early childhood education and care. Access to that education is key to their well-being and life ahead. I ask the Minister to outline the work being done in that regard, particularly work being done on housing with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-03-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:17+00:00 Sitting date: 2022-03-24