Reverse welfare cuts - anti-poverty groups

Anti-poverty groups will meet the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, today hoping she will revise some of the social welfare cuts she announced last month.

Some 14 organisations, including the Simon Communities and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, will voice their opposition to a number of welfare cuts in the Estimates.

The most controversial were the discontinuation of emergency crèche payment and severe restrictions on rent supplement. The Minister announced that anyone applying for rent allowance would have to rent from their own resources for six months.

Groups opposed to this cut - including the trade unions representing community welfare officers who have to implement it - said it would lead to mass homelessness. Mr Declan Jones, CEO of the homelessness charity Focus Ireland, said the cuts needed to be reversed "urgently".

Meanwhile, the Department's Office on Social Inclusion was told yesterday the Budget had "completely failed" to do anything to address child poverty.

In an address by the End Child Poverty Coalition the office was told the measures enunciated in the Budget "have not brought us any closer to ending poverty for the 70,000 children who live in consistent poverty".

Ms Liz Kerrins, spokeswoman for the coalition, said the meeting was used to highlight its disappointment with the Budget and to urge the office to press upon Government the need for specific measures to tackle child poverty.

Mr Ray Dooley, chief executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, said there was particular annoyance that for the 10th year in a row there had been no increase in the Child Dependent Allowance. This benefit is paid to the poorest children in the State.

"The Government could have used an increase in the allowance as a key measure to improve the standard of living for children living in consistent poverty."

Consistent poverty is defined as living without such basics as a warm coat and a second pair of strong shoes.