THE NUMBER OF children in households below the poverty line rose to 200,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an increase of almost 30,000 children on 2021, the last year for which there is data,\u00a0according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).<\/p>\n
This is despite the fact that the average disposable household income increased by 4% between 2023 and 2024, accounting for inflation, after Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine resulted in several years of economic stagnation.<\/p>\n
Household incomes grew faster at the top than the middle or bottom of the income distribution between 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Incomes grew by more than 7% for the top 10% of households compared to 3% for the bottom half, increasing inequality across Irish society.<\/p>\n
It is also a marked difference from previous progressive disposable income increases in Ireland since the 1970s (excluding the years of the financial crisis), when it was those at the bottom of the income distribution that rose above.<\/p>\n
Disposable income averaged \u20ac38,021 for the lowest-income fifth and \u20ac141,580 for the highest-income fifth in 2024.\n<\/p>\n
The poverty line<\/strong><\/p>\n Those deemed to be below the poverty line are those defined as having less than 60% of the median household disposable income. This does not include housing costs.<\/p>\n Accounting for housing costs, there are 260,000 children below the poverty line. This is an increase of 40,000 children on 2021.<\/p>\n The report\u2019s authors flagged concern around the fact that the official measure of poverty does not account for housing costs, highlighting that families renting privately or paying a mortgage typically ring-fence a large portion of their income for this purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the importance of housing costs for families with children and the difference it makes to estimates of poverty, there is a strong case that the child poverty target should be defined in terms of an income measure that accounts for housing costs,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of which measure is used, the government is very far from meeting its 2030 target.\u201d<\/p>\n The government has stated its intent to reduce child poverty to 3% by 2030. The report said that to achieve this, two-thirds of children in consistent poverty would have to be lifted above the poverty line.\u00a0<\/p>\n This scale of recovery was seen between 2013 and 2020 \u2013 but this was due to the State recovering from the economic crash.<\/p>\n It was also outlined that although there are more children in households that operate below the poverty line, the majority are not deprived of necessities as parents often prioritise their children.<\/p>\n The ESRI highlighted various policy measures that have been discussed to target the issue of child poverty, but recommended a means-tested second tier of child benefit.<\/p>\n It said this would reduce child poverty more effectively, per euro spent, than increasing existing supports.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is because many low-income families with children are not eligible for \u2013 or do not take up \u2013 existing means-tested supports and so do not benefit from increases to these supports,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n Denise Charlton, the chief executive of Community Foundation Ireland, who supported the research, said the findings evidence that many children and families continue to face \u201cenormous\u201d challenges, \u201ceven in times when on paper our country is rich\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe harsh reality is a rising tide does not lift all boats.\u201d<\/p>\n She urged policymakers to use the report\u2019s evidence to deliver systemic policy changes.<\/p>\n \u2018Not acceptable\u2019<\/p>\n Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2032s Morning Ireland programme, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said the number of children in poverty is \u201cnot acceptable\u201d, but he took issue with the methodology that was used to carry out the research in the report.<\/p>\n He argued that 60% of median household disposable income to measure poverty is a \u201cvery high benchmark\u201d and said the report does not take into account the full impact of the last three budgets because it is partially based on data from 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were record increases in child support payments [last year]. 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\u2019ve free GP care for under nine-year-olds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of that isn\u2019t getting measured in the particular framework that was used.\u201d<\/p>\n He was asked why a second tier of child benefit targeting low income households, which it has been estimated could lift more than 55,000 children out of poverty overnight, has not been introduced.\u00a0<\/p>\n Martin said the Department of Social Protection had told him \u201cthat ESRI themselves said previously that up to 100,000 children could be taken out of supports if you were to bring in a second child tier payment, and that\u2019s a concern\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to bring in a system that would actually take 100,000 children out of current support programmes. So it\u2019s not simple.\u201d<\/p>\n The department carried out a public consultation on the matter in the summer, receiving around 270 submissions. Martin said the department \u201cwill come back to us\u201d on the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said the government has a lot more work to do to reduce child poverty, \u201cbut we\u2019re focused and targeted on doing that\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the best way to do it is through increasing child support payments and other measures that can increase income levels, but also opportunities for people on the lowest incomes. That\u2019s the strategy we will use.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE NUMBER OF children in households below the poverty line rose to 200,000 in 2024. It\u2019s an increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,39730,179,18,38419,13,14,6,3847,19,55541,17,11,12,15,16,5,20912,39431,7,8],"class_list":["post-678294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-child-poverty","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-esri","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-ie","tag-income-inequality","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-social-issues","tag-social-welfare","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117234771481042906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}