The Government has been urged to introduce special measures to ensure that no family will lose their home due to an inability to meet mortgage payments in the current economic downturn.
A coalition of groups working to eliminate child poverty presented a number of proposals today to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs.
The End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) - a coalition of seven non-governmental groups – told the committee that vulnerable children “must not fall victim to the economic downturn”.
It said there are some 75,000 children living in consistent poverty and that one in five are at risk of poverty.
Barnardos, Children's Rights Alliance, Focus Ireland, National Youth Council of Ireland, OPEN - One Parent Exchange and Network, Pavee Point and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are all part of the coalition.
It called for four immediate measures to protect vulnerable children and their families, including the redeployment of civil servants to ensure applications for jobseekers payments are processed urgently.
The group also urged that there should be sufficient numbers of budget advisers working with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) to help people make household budget plans.
It called for speedy processing of other benefits such as rent supplement, mortgage interest supplement and the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance “as a matter of urgency”.
Members of the coalition also urged the Government to carry out a strategic review of the social welfare system to examine how it links in with the labour market in order to maintain and sustain as many people in employment as possible.
Spokesman John-Mark McCafferty said: “We welcome the fact that child poverty has reduced and that some policies have made inroads in its reduction. However, there is a very real risk that a lack of sustained investment, combined with rising unemployment, will see this good work undone and child poverty levels rising once again.”
“We know that difficult choices must be made due to the reality of the economic situation. However, taking difficult choices must not mean taking the easy option; there is a pressing need to protect the most vulnerable, which is a stated priority for Government.”
Mr McCafferty said the coalition had six key policy proposals which, if implemented, would make “serious inroads into tackling child poverty in Ireland more effectively in these difficult times”.
“These are to increase basic social welfare payments, enhance the family income supplement scheme, broaden the provision of quality early childhood care and education and after-school care, increase access to medical cards, tackle social housing waiting lists and to fully implement the DEIS [early school-leaver] strategy and Traveller education strategy in order to seriously tackle educational disadvantage.”