Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the outcomes of the child poverty and well-being summit. [26079/24]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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17. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the outcomes of the child poverty and well-being summit. [28141/24]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the outcomes of the child poverty and well-being summit. [28184/24]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 to 18, inclusive, together.

I was delighted to host the child poverty and well-being summit on Thursday, 23 May in Dublin Castle.

I welcomed the former UK Prime Minister and Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who shared what he had learned from his experience of reducing child poverty rates in the UK in his keynote address. My colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, also gave a keynote address.

Children’s participation was an important feature of the day. In advance of the summit, a youth advisory group on child poverty and well-being was established. I wanted to hear directly from young people living in Ireland about what is important to them. An important output from the youth advisory group was a video that was shown at the summit, which highlighted the key issues that matter to them.

While it is important to consult with children and young people, it is also essential to have accountability and to show how we have taken their views on board. That is why I have committed to following up with the youth advisory group again later this year.

Children’s participation also included an art exhibition and a specially written musical performance from Music Generation. It was a pleasure to see the artistic contributions from children and young people and it was a highlight of my day to meet many of the children and young people at the summit. The summit itself had three objectives: to increase the focus on child poverty and well-being across government and its agencies, to take stock of progress and learning to date and to inform future considerations. To further that end, policymakers from across the public service were in attendance as well as representatives from the non-government sector and research organisations.

A panel discussion took place in the morning and 17 innovative case clinics took place in the afternoon. Each case clinic engaged the collective experience of the group to discuss a challenge or new idea that will help address child poverty or well-being. Case clinic topics were wide ranging and included preventing family homelessness, maximising the impact of social welfare payments, and improving educational outcomes for migrant children.

Discussions from the summit will inform cross-government dialogue in advance of budget 2025 as the Government seeks to support and deepen the focus on child poverty and well-being. A summary report on the summit will be published by the child poverty and well-being programme office in due course.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Taoiseach. Members have a maximum of a minute and a half.

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Taoiseach for his response. I have discussed this matter with the Taoiseach and other members of the Government in the recent past. I am always pleased to hear he is cognisant that listening to children is extremely important but figuring out how to turn that into policy is just as important and, therefore, it is encouraging to hear that, and what the Government does in the forthcoming budget will be crucial to improving childhood poverty rates.

One area I will focus on is the school meals programme, which is important. Year after year, academic report after international example, we brought it in and I believe it has been extremely successful. However, I am concerned to hear there has been pushback where some schools in certain parts of the country do not wish to bring it in. Perhaps they consider it is too much of a burden. I am not sure. However, it is important that, as Head of the Government, the Taoiseach looks at this because it is an important aid to access to education and also to support children who are on the lowest rung when it comes to eating standards.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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The lack of planning in the school system means that children with additional educational needs are consistently being failed. I am contacted by parents across west Cork every week. I was speaking to a mother and her twin children recently. One of the twins has Down's syndrome and they have been in the same class all the way through primary school. One twin has had an SNA with her full time. They are just about to head into secondary school and they found out there is a place for one of the twins but potentially not for the other one. They do not know and just have to wait to find out. As the Taoiseach can imagine, that transition is huge anyway, without not even knowing what is happening and potentially being separated, not just for all of her classmates but from her twin. This child has been in school for eight years, the special educational needs organiser has known about it and the fact that there has been no forward planning or preparation for this just blows my mind. I cannot understand how that is not happening. The parents of children who have to fight for their supports in the first instance in primary school should not have to start fighting all over again when they start secondary school. I am asking that polices around planning for students with additional needs are revised. It needs to start before this. Schools should get information from crèches for primary school and then primary school information should be given to secondary schools. There are so many schools in my area that are going above and beyond, fundraising to set up special classes to provide for students in County Kerry. It is not the fault of the schools; the overall system is not accommodating them.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I raised with the Taoiseach previously the case of Jack McNiffe from County Kildare and the issue of July provision. Funding for students in special classes for the summer programme of the July provision had been reduced from €60 per student in 2022 to €45 in 2023 and now to €30 in 2024. The Taoiseach challenged me when I raised the issue before and he questioned the figures. My figures are accurate today; they were accurate then. In fact, the head teachers in primary schools across the State are reporting real stress and difficulty because of these cuts. I put it to the Taoiseach before and I put it to him again that these cuts should be reversed. I do not want him to come back and tell me that the global budget is bigger. I am specifying these particular capitation rates. They are causing a big difficulty. The questions that are being asked relate to child poverty. If we are serious about tackling child poverty and providing for children, particularly those in some cases with very complex needs, then the Government cannot be cutting capitation levels like that, year after year. The Government needs to reverse those decisions as a demonstration of its seriousness in this area of policy.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I have brought up the issue before of children who grew up in chaotic sets of circumstances and the need for early intervention and supports. I have also spoken about the fact that, like many others, I have had to deal with some of these chaotic instances that impact greatly on the wider community and that we do not have the supports of the tools, whether from An Garda Síochána, Tusla, the council or anybody else. I welcome the huge work done at times by the likes of the projects run out of The House in Cox's Demense, the TEAM Project in Muirhevnamor and by Craobh Rua. I could talk about the Louth ABC Changing Lives Initiative or Springboard when it was operated once upon a time with more resources in Muirhevnamor. There were early family supports. That is where we need to go to. Can the Government something that is cross-departmental? We understand this is the responsibility of the Departments of children, Health and Justice. This is from a point of view of looking at the sort of supports we could put in early to have an impact on these children and families and breaking poverty and ensuring children get through to education and jobs and all that is necessary. However, we also need to provide those supports to deal with those communities that are impacted when this all goes wrong and we have not put those supports in.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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It is an absolute scandal that more than 4,000 children in this country are homeless. All of those cases are unnecessary or avoidable. I will give a current example of a child who is facing homelessness in an extraordinarily avoidable situation. The child, her father and his partner - the child's mother - live in an apartment in Tallaght. I first met them well over a year ago. They had a notice to quit because the landlord was selling the apartment. They were willing to sell it to the council under the tenant in situ scheme. I contacted the council first with a representation on 29 May. The council said it was pursuing this again and again. This has gone on for more than a year at this stage and then just yesterday, the family got an email from the estate agent saying the local authority had advised they would no longer be proceeding with the sale of the property. The father sent me an email this morning saying that they could not be homeless as their health does not allow them to do so. The father cannot breathe at night without a device, he has heart problems and he is waiting for surgery. His wife is his carer but she is also sick and her daughter is under Jigsaw's care with a mental health issue. He said the county council was slowing everything down for more than one year and at the end of it, they do not seem to care and make people homeless. It is an incredible situation. This has been going on for over a year. It seemed that things were proceeding with the council and now at this last moment, it seems the council is not going ahead.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I have several cases like that as well. There are problems with the tenant in situ scheme and councils are looking for reasons not to go through it with families who are facing the prospect of homelessness. Something has to be done about it.

I want to raise an issue quickly that is also shocking which relates to children with special needs. This story can probably be repeated many times. A young woman and mother called Margaret came in to my office this week. She has two children with special needs. Her son Thomas, who is aged five, was diagnosed with autism an intellectual disability in January 2023. He had been previously referred to the children's disability network team, CDNT, and was waiting on speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and a psychologist. He was due to start the speech and language therapy next week, July 2024, but received a letter last week deferring the appointment until January 2026. I am not easily shocked but that is unbelievable. I know there is the understaffing in the CDNTs and CAMHS, but that is just criminal neglect of a child with special needs. I seriously ask that something be done about that.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Alan Farrell for raising the school meals programme. This is fundamentally important in tackling child poverty and child hunger but it is also a measure above and beyond that for all parents. It is an assistance in respect of both cost and convenience. People are time poor as well. It is also enables us, because we link it to our healthy eating guidelines, to make sure a child is getting a healthy and nutritious meal too. It has been a great success. We will have an ability to roll it out to all primary schools that wish to have it in 2025. I am struck by the point the Deputy made regarding the schools that wish to have the programme. I intend to probe that a little further now. My understanding was that the take-up had been quite high but let me check that out and also check what feedback there may be from schools on this. I am sure many schools would want to be involved, and I know many schools are involved, but the way it is done is quite helpful to schools and is not a particular burden. I will follow that up because it is important to take the feedback.

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising the issue of special school places. I am not going to dispute this. She is right; there is a need to plan much earlier. This idea that the system is surprised that somebody needs to move from preschool to primary school, primary school to secondary school or even secondary school to third level education is a nonsense. I accept we are not doing enough in this space and we need to do much more and much better. It is one of the areas on which we have a particular focus at the Cabinet committee on disability. We are focusing on how we can start to get ahead of this situation. I can read out notes here that will say that everybody who needs a place will get a place. I believe that to be true but it misses the point in terms of the stress, anxiety and worry that somebody feels, such as the parent of the twins referred to by the Deputy. There are other examples of that. I take the legitimate point and I will come back to her further on that.

Regarding Deputy McDonald's question, I do not want to be argumentative in this regard. Summer provision is something I really believe in. It is something that works and is something I invested a fair amount of time into inquiring about, as I should. The Deputy does not want me to give the figure from the global budget but I have to pick a point. The changes we have made are truthfully on the basis of feedback and engagement we have got regarding those who are delivering the programme. I will inquire as to what the Deputy is saying because I am not dismissing the importance of this. I am not having a row with her and I am not saying her numbers are wrong. I accept there have been changes to the capitation grant but I also know that every single cent moved from there is still within the budget to provide various aspects of the programme.

We had been hearing from the schools of the different supports they needed. We have seen an increase in our schools looking to partake this year compared with last year which is an encouraging sign. I am happy to talk further with the Deputy on this and I am happy to receive any correspondence from her. More people will access July provision this year than last year. More schools are participating this year than last year, which is positive.

I know Deputy Ó Murchú brings up on a regular basis, which is a positive, the need to find more crosscutting ways to address families or children who find themselves in chaos through no fault of theirs and the need not to have a siloed approach. There are some examples of work the Department of children has led on to allow other groups to plug in. I might get the Deputy a note on initiatives we currently have in place. He might come back to me with any gaps he might see on that.

Deputy Paul Murphy, and Deputy Boyd Barrett briefly, spoke about the tenant in situscheme and the rather upsetting case Deputy Murphy outlined. We introduced the tenant in situscheme to help ensure the tenant could remain in situ. If that is not being operationalised or there are shortcomings, I would like to follow that up. I will take the example Deputy Murphy has given - Deputy Boyd Barrett has said there are many more like it - talk to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and he or I will come back to the Deputy in writing on it. I also ask him to send me details on speech and language therapy. I accept there are challenges in the system. We are recruiting more. I do not accept a scenario that somebody should be told they had an appointment very shortly and now that appointment is in 2026; that is not acceptable.