The CEO of the Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) has called on the Government to focus on tackling child poverty in the upcoming Budget.

Tanya Ward said there is no reason why the cycle of child poverty cannot be broken in one generation in Ireland and that there was a number of “smart things” the Government could do in Budget 2027.

New ESRI research published today showed Ireland has seen a sharp rise in child poverty despite a strong growth in average incomes.

One in 10 children are deprived of basic necessities, according to the report, with 200,000 children living in households below the poverty line.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, Ms Ward said poverty is a result of “political choices that politicians make”.

There are a number of smart things the Government could do in the next Budget, including focusing on families and senior welfare payments and helping lower income families with energy costs, she said.

The Government also needed to give more families help with the national childcare scheme and hone in on core services that we know families will benefit from, she added

“Give a €10 increase for children under 12, 18 for over 12. That would make a big difference.

“They could try and get more families to receive the work and family payments. That would get your families who can’t keep ahead above water, who are trying to stay in work,” Ms Ward said.

We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Ms Ward said she was particularly concerned about the experience of child poverty for those children under the age of six.

Child poverty leaves a longer legacy for these children, she said, they are more likely to have a poor self view and do well in education.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Taoiseach Micheál Martin conceded that the level of child poverty is too high and not acceptable, but defended the Government’s record in tackling the issue.

Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, the Fianna Fáil leader said the Government had introduced a range of measures such as free school books and more DEIS school places but acknowledged more could be done.

“The ESRI report doesn’t take into account the full impact of the last three budgets because it’s partially based on 2023 data.

“And the fact of the matter is last year’s child support payments were not incremental as described this morning. There were record increases in child support payments.

“And also, if I could now, free school books came in over the last two to three years, hot school meals are available in almost all schools now, the DEIS+ programme has been introduced.

“We have free GP care for under nine year olds in terms of children.

“So I mean a lot of that isn’t getting measured in the particular framework that was used., and look, people legitimately have different frameworks and benchmarks.

“On the deprivation index that we have to be absolutely adamant that we look after children in terms of access to education, access to housing, access to health care. “

“Those are core fundamentals in terms of child poverty that we are focused on, and I agree it’s too high, I’m not arguing with that.,” he said.

The child poverty unit within his department was working with all Government departments to have policies focused on reducing child poverty, he added.