There was a 7 per cent increase in the number of children living in emergency accommodation between August and September this year, according to the Children’s charity Barnardos.
Addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Children, Barnardos chief executive Suzanne Connolly outlined a toll of disadvantage experienced by children in poverty including physical and mental health damage; adverse impacts on well being and future development; educational under achievement and social exclusion.
Ms Connolly said living in poverty is associated with reduced life chances and increases the likelihood of poverty as adults. She told the Committee that reducing and ultimately ending child poverty “should be a fundamental aim and commitment of Government”.
She outlined a recent “Back to School Survey” of almost 1,500 parents which showed 20 per cent of respondents had to take out some form of loan to meet those costs.
Barnardos services, she said, seek to intervene to improve prospects for children and parents experiencing poverty by providing practical support for immediate needs from furniture to food, or linking with energy providers to try to reduce payments.
Ms Connolly said in order to address child poverty, the government should:
* Reduce the number of children experiencing homeless, placing a six- month limit on the time they can spend in emergency accommodation.
* Expand the hot school meals programme.
* Provide free education to all children, including free schoolbooks, ending voluntary contributions and addressing the high cost uniforms.
* Enhance welfare supports for lone parents, whose children are at heightened risk of poverty.
* Increase access to free childcare for low-income families.
Dr Maria O’Dwyer, national coordinator of the Prevention and Early Intervention Network told the committee international that as well as Irish research, Government policy and the experience of practitioners on the ground “all clearly indicate the social, as well as the economic, benefits of prioritising prevention and early intervention”.
However, she said too often our supports to children and families were “too little too late”.
She said the Prevention and Early Intervention Network represented organisations and individuals focussed on “the most effective ways of building a protective layer of support to stop difficulties from arising in the first place” as well as providing support at the earliest possible stage when difficulties do occur.
She said services were experiencing increased demand, while anxiety in particular, was having a debilitating impact on many children and many parents. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) including the impact of poverty, result in serious physical and mental health issues across a person’s lifespan, she said.
Children should not have to wait to access services which are critical to their development, she said.
However, Deputy Mark Ward told the Committee he as well as other public representatives regularly have yo pass on responses from service providers to the effect that specific children must wait for four years for help such as speech and language supports.
Pat Dennigan, CEO of Focus Ireland, said the issue of child poverty is deeply related to people with complex support needs, young adults, and families.
He said while the causes of homelessness are complex, extensive recent analysis found “the experience of childhood poverty very often predates, and is a powerful predictor of, adulthood homelessness”.
“Every day, Focus Ireland services observe the same thing” he said.
