I would like to take the opportunity to welcome Shillelagh National School pupils to Dáil Éireann. They are very welcome indeed.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 16, inclusive, together.

Reducing child poverty is a key priority for this Government, as set out in the programme for Government. In September 2025, the Government agreed a new and ambitious child poverty target to reduce the child consistent poverty rate to 3% or less by the end of 2030 from the current rate of 7.8%. This target is guiding decisions, action and investment across government.

In budget 2026, the Government prioritised targeted supports for those impacted by poverty. Some €28.9 billion will be spent on social protection this year, including over €1.15 billion of new measures to assist households and more than €320 million in targeted measures designed to tackle child poverty. Key measures include the largest ever increases to child support payments, higher income thresholds for the working family payment and expanded access to the fuel allowance and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. These measures are in addition to cross-government initiatives under way, such as free school meals, free schoolbooks, free GP visit cards and enhancements to the early childhood care and education schemes, including the development of our new DEIS strategy. This will include DEIS plus, which includes more targeted measures for schools with severe disadvantage. It is very encouraging to see the effects of these measures starting to take hold.

Recent data from the Central Statistics Office's Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2025, published on 11 March, shows a welcome reduction in the child consistent poverty rate in 2025 from 8.5% to 7.8%, demonstrating the impact of Government measures to date. However, of course, we know we have to do much more to deliver our target and enhance long-term outcomes for children and society generally.

While consistent poverty is a very important metric, it is not the only way we have of measuring how children are doing. The programme office on child poverty and well-being has compiled a dashboard of indicators that will be used alongside the new child poverty target. This captures the multidimensional nature of child poverty and well-being, as alongside income supports, we are also advancing actions in housing, employment, childcare and public services.

The Government’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, recognises that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that we face. It provides dedicated capital funding of €100 million, which will be ring-fenced to support local authorities to acquire properties to tackle long-term homelessness. This funding will be used specifically to acquire suitable units to exit families who are the longest in emergency accommodation and for Housing First units for individuals with complex needs who are experiencing homelessness. Given the importance of this issue for child well-being, the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of housing are working together on a new action plan on child and family homelessness, supported by relevant Departments and State bodies.

We have 16 Members offering. I propose a minute each. I call Deputy Catherine Ardagh.

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.

I fully support the measures the Taoiseach has outlined. The target of 3% is commendable. Ultimately, we should be working towards a complete eradication of child poverty. While that is aspirational, it should be the target. This time last year, many rumours abounded about the inclusion of a second tier of child benefit as part of budget 2026. Ultimately, it did not make the cut. Can the Taoiseach can confirm what plans there are within his Department, alongside that of the Minister, Deputy Dara Calleary, to ensure that we will see a second tier of child benefit payment introduced in budget 2027 as a real, concrete measure to tackle child poverty?

The Taoiseach mentioned child poverty. There are a quarter of a million children in forced deprivation, 8% in consistent poverty, and one in five workers is low-paid in an economy that has vast wealth and a budget surplus. The Taoiseach mentioned DEIS plus. In Dublin 15 and much of the constituency I represent, there is huge anger among principals that so many schools have been left off the DEIS plus list. Earlier I raised the two primary schools in Corduff left off DEIS plus even though it is an area where principals have described gangland crime and criminality. I refer also to Blakestown Community School. Not one secondary school in Dublin 15 was included on the list, despite us having the youngest population and huge areas of poverty. All of the orange parts of the map I am holding up are in these areas I am talking about. Blakestown Community School has very disadvantaged status. It has problems with educational attainment, employment issues, criminality and lone parents. A significant number of children live in care or emergency accommodation. There are English language learners, a huge number of pupils of heritage status other than Irish and children with Traveller identity who do not want to identify as Travellers. The school experiences so many of these issues. If we look at the overall population of schoolgoing age, it is absolutely baffling that one primary school, Ladyswell National School in Mulhuddart, and no secondary school made the DEIS plus list. There is a superleague of poverty now that the Government is forcing schools to compete in. All schools should be getting these supports.

The latest figures on child poverty are showing exactly what we feared. Over a quarter of children aged under 16 are growing up in poverty. The Government has received warning after warning and it did not listen. I want to talk about the Clondalkin Equine Centre in my own area. It is a wonderful place. It is in an area of high deprivation as the Pobal index will tell us. It is like an oasis of calm in a really disadvantaged area. Last Thursday, we had a wonderful visit from President Catherine Connolly to the equine centre. It was fantastic. The kids were absolutely brilliant in showing the President around the area. The equine centre does not receive any core funding. It has 20 stables and it is not able to be self-sufficient. It is in danger of closing. What supports are in place for a centre like this in an area of high deprivation that has high levels of child poverty?

Last weekend, I listened to constituents in apartment dwellings who are struggling with the rising cost of energy, particularly single parents. A singular plug-in solar system would have a payback period, depending on grant size, of between 12 and 24 months. In conjunction, if we used 500 W and 800 W, it would really help people who do not have access to rooftops to reduce their energy bills. Is there any update from the Department of the Taoiseach? I welcome the work of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien on this issue of plug-in solar.

The issue of child poverty can be exacerbated by disability. I want to bring up the case of 14-year-old Harry. He is non-verbal and has been diagnosed with ASD, ADHD and general moderate learning disability. He has been in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, since 30 March. He is in a state of extreme distress and is engaging in daily self-injurious behaviour. He is confined to a single hospital room under 24-hour supervision by security guards. This is a medical setting. Timber blocks have been installed on windows to prevent escape. This is a repeat of a 2022 incident where Harry was similarly marooned in UHL due to lack of appropriate HSE disability provision. He has been in a full-time disability service run by RehabCare for the past four years. He was put in a temporary Red House facility in Limerick on 11 February 2026. On 30 March, he escaped this, barefoot, releasing fire exits and climbing gates. He was on the main road. He was, and is, in a situation that is not appropriate. The family cannot get sufficient communication from the HSE. We need a solution to this situation.

Understandably, it is not necessarily a child poverty issue but the Taoiseach might address it.

I appreciate all the questions that have been asked. The Deputies have raised some important issues. Deputy Ardagh raised the issue of lone-parent families. It is correct that they can be particularly vulnerable at times to higher levels of deprivation or poverty. Child support payments are a very effective way to give additional supports. The latest budget saw a record increase of €8 for under-12s and €16 for children aged 12 and over, I think. We are going to continue to do that.

That relates to the question about a second-tier payment. There are a number of mechanisms to get there. I will engage again with the Minister, Deputy Calleary on this for the next budget. The child poverty unit in the Department of the Taoiseach is engaging with all Departments but particularly the Department of Social Protection in terms of how we can increase income supports. The child support payment is a very direct and effective way to support. There are also means test thresholds we can look at as well to facilitate lone parents who are working to receive higher payments. The free books scheme and hot school meals scheme also help and facilitate lone-parent families. In some instances, the DEIS scheme is significant as well as DEIS Plus. We will continue in terms of the child support payments, higher income thresholds, access to fuel allowance, back to school clothing and footwear allowances. They were all expanded this year to about an extra 50,000 people. Some of those were lone parents. The free GP visit cards for everyone under eight, and better enhancements to the early childhood care and education schemes will all be supportive. We will engage with the organisations representing lone parents to see what more we can do to improve that situation.

Deputy John Connolly raised a very important issue. I think €500,000 is too low. That probably came under the Department of children. It is too low. For years there have been problems in terms of children's playgrounds coming under different Departments. I absolutely agree that recreational space is vital to the well-being of any child. The Deputy mentioned Headford. Some areas of our cities historically never had enough green area provided. We can do more and can do better on that. I will keep an eye on that in the context of the next budget to enhance that fund. I will talk to the relevant Ministers, both in terms of children and disability but also in terms of allocations to local authorities more generally. Some of these initiatives suffer from pass-the-parcel between different Departments. The point is very well-made in terms of availability of play facilities. Play is key to child development. Children learn far more through play at an earlier age than through formal education so it is critically important.

On the two-tier child benefit, we had a lot of discussion on it last year and I engaged with the Department of social protection, the Minister, Deputy Calleary and the Secretary General. One of the challenges was that under the model, a lot of existing families could lose out. We do not want that to happen. A lot of design work is under way. It is an open question as to whether we will go for a ring-fenced second tier or will continue to enhance child support payments, which have a very positive and immediate impact on child poverty rates.

We are also looking at the cost of disability. The Minister has convened stakeholders' groups to consult on how a cost-of-disability payment would work, the extent of it, the limits and so on and who would benefit. That is not unrelated to child poverty either and could be a particular support to families of children with disabilities.

In terms of DEIS plus, I do not like the phrase super league of poverty; that is unfair. We have the DEIS programme which is quite extensive and which we expanded significantly about two and a half years ago. It means a significant reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio in those schools, additional financial supports and other supports. The DEIS plus was set up with a view to having a targeted approach for very severely disadvantaged schools, even more than the DEIS itself. By definition it is not for every school. Targeting is important in the allocation of resources. There is actually something wrong if everybody gets it because that is not actually helping children who need it most.

Politicians did not decide the list; it was independently decided. We can look at the methodology. I accept that sometimes we look at it and wonder how a particular school did not get in when another school did. We can look at the research and those who did the research to identify the schools that qualified for DEIS plus. There are significant issues in many communities - not all Government-created. We have to respond to and deal with them, and help the children who suffer as a result of particular background issues or whatever. DEIS plus is one further measure to assist children who are in very difficult situations to enable them to learn properly and to have some chance in life. That is what we are doing with the DEIS plus scheme.

Deputy Ward asked about the equine centre in Clondalkin. I am a strong believer in equine centres. They can have positive therapeutic and recreational impacts for young people, in particular children. I am not sure if the Deputy was saying there an issue with the funding there.

There is no core funding for it at the moment. It is trying everything.

I know the HSE is funding some equine centres but they may be of a different kind than the one in Clondalkin. I think the one in Clondalkin is more generally directed at youth so the Department of Education and Youth should be dealing with that. I will take that back to the Minister for Education and Youth to see what we can do there.

Deputy Heneghan spoke about the plug-in solar system. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is very open to that. Anything that enhances the ability of people to reduce their energy costs is something we should be doing and investing in because it leads to a permanent reduction in their costs. I know the Deputy has been a very strong advocate for novel approaches to energy efficiency, such as the private wires Bill and plug-in solar. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is very open to this and I will ask him to meet the Deputy to pursue this and to engage on it.

Deputy Ó Murchú raised a very distressing and sad case. I am always somewhat reluctant to discuss individual cases of children in the Dáil or in public. The HSE should develop capacities to help children in situations like this to avoid having a child locked up in what seems to be a mental health unit in a hospital. It is Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, is it?

No, it is in Limerick. Deputy McGettigan gave me the details and I can send them on to the Taoiseach afterwards.

If the Deputy sends me the details, we will pursue that. It is a very distressing case indeed.