National Child Poverty Target Public Consultation

The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD, has launched a public consultation on the setting of a new national child poverty target.

The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025, published in January 2020, is a whole of government strategy with the ambitious target to reduce consistent poverty to 2% and make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. It includes the commitment (#40) to set a new national child poverty target. The Mid-Term Review of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion, published in June of this year, further commits to undertaking a public consultation in 2023 to inform the development of a new national child poverty target.

Reducing child poverty is a core ambition of the government. The development of a new national child poverty target will feed into the wider whole of government approach to address child poverty, including:

• the establishment, in early 2023, of the Child Poverty and Well-being Programme Office in the Department of the Taoiseach. The unit recently published its first Programme Plan which aims to make Ireland the best country in Europe to be a child, From Poverty to Potential: A programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being 2023-2025
• the development of Young Ireland: The National Policy Framework for Children and Young People 2023 – 2028, a whole of government initiative, led by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. This successor framework to Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures will focus on how government works to realise the rights of children and young people in Ireland

The public consultation guidance document below sets out the context of the consultation and provides a number of questions and options to guide your input.

Consultation Guidance Document

Child Poverty Target: Public Consultation Guidance Document

Please send submissions by email to CPTsubmissions@welfare.ieor by post to the address below no later than 5pm, Friday, 19 January 2024, making sure to provide your name and organisation (if applicable).

Postal address:

Child Poverty Target Consultation

Department of Social Protection

Goldsmith House

7-13 Pearse Street

Dublin 2

D02 YY17

Before making any submission, please review the privacy information below.

Deadline for submissions is 5pm, Friday 19 January.

Responses will be collated and analysed by the Department of Social Protection.

Submissions may be published on the department’s website.

Please note submissions will not be responded to.

This is a public consultation and the Freedom of Information Act 2014 applies.

Personal information should not be provided and any personal information which you volunteer may be published. Any material which you do not wish to be made public should not be included.

Material or information that is regarded as commercially sensitive by you should not be included.

However, if you provide it, you should clearly identify the material and the reason for its sensitivity and why it should not be published or made available under the Freedom of Information Act.

The department’s full Privacy Statement and Data Protection are here.

You can submit your views up until 5pm 19 January 2024.