Child Poverty Unit Priorities Paper

Child Poverty Priorities Paper 2023

The Children’s Rights Alliance welcomes the establishment of a dedicated Child Poverty and Wellbeing Unit at the Department of An Taoiseach.

Since the announcement of the unit’s establishment, new data from the CSO’s Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) shows that the rates of child poverty increased in 2022. In Ireland, 7.5 per cent of children were living in consistent poverty in 2022, 19.9 per cent were experiencing deprivation and 15.2 per cent of children at risk of poverty. Children have the highest rates of consistent poverty and deprivation and the second highest at risk of poverty rate when compared by age cohort.

With the growing numbers of children experiencing poverty, it is critical that the Child Poverty and Wellbeing Unit has the capacity to drive a cross-government approach to policy implementation as well as identifying key actions that will have the most meaningful impact on children living in or at risk of poverty.

This paper sets out how the unit should operate as well as considering what these priority actions, for the next two years, should be.