Government failures to meet key commitments on child poverty will be highlighted in a report to be published today.
The study, Child Poverty In Ireland 2005: An Overview comes from the End Child Poverty Coalition, a partnership of seven organisations - the Children's Rights Alliance, Focus Ireland, the One Parent Exchange Network, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, the National Youth Federation, Barnardos and Pavee Point.
They say in the report: "The Government has, since 2001, consistently broken its own commitment to increase the child benefit payment. Additionally, the rate of child dependant allowance remains frozen since 1994 and child benefit is now denied to incoming asylum seeker and migrant children. These decisions have compounded the effects of poverty for the most vulnerable children in Ireland."
It points out that the Government, in its 2002 National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS), committed itself to reducing the number of children in consistent poverty to below 2 per cent by 2007.
Latest figures published this year showed 14.6 per cent of children, or 148,000, were in consistent poverty. This means they live in households on less than 60 per cent of the average industrial wage and are also deprived of such basics as two pairs of strong shoes, a meal with meat every second day or a warm waterproof coat.
Other commitments which have been broken, say the organisations, are: to provide 200,000 new medical cards particularly focusing on families with children; to ensure every local authority provides adequate accommodation for Traveller families; to eliminate the use of B&B accommodation for homeless families.
Among the organisations' demands for the forthcoming budget are:
