Denise Charlton: Child poverty must not be our shameful legacy

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

We remain at risk of being the first generation in modern times to hand over a poorer society to our children. This forecast of shame should be a national call to action so we can finally break the cycle of poverty and disadvantage.
The findings in the 2025 Child Poverty Monitor by the Children's Rights Alliance add to the growing body of evidence and research showing that more and more children and their families are faced with impossible decisions of heating their home or getting a dinner together that night or buying a warmer coat for winter.
We know too, that there are an increasing number of families whose daily reality is even starker in that they do not have a place to call home. In the three years since the Alliance first partnered with Community Foundation Ireland to produce the original monitor, the number of children in emergency accommodation has increased by 1,747 to 4,775.
These findings follow the Poverty Income Inequality and Living Standards report by the Economic and Social Research Institute, released last September, which shows that 230,000 children are in material deprivation. As startling as the numbers may be, they do not tell the full story — the sleepless nights of worry and fear, wondering where the next meal will come from.
What makes the current cost-of-living and poverty crisis even more shameful is that it is escalating at a time when, on paper, we as a country are enjoying a period of wealth.
The impact of the crisis is felt in every community. We know from our partnerships with researchers and 5,000 voluntary, community, and charitable workers that those communities already facing disadvantage are at the highest risk. These include lone parents, people with disabilities, people living with addiction, Travellers, and those fleeing war and persecution.
However, in 2025, even those with jobs are at risk. Many families are just one pay cheque away from being pulled into debt, deprivation, or poverty.
The Child Poverty Monitor, ESRI research, and experience of our partners on the ground not only provide evidence but also provide solutions and recommendations. Successive Governments have only partially met those calls to action.
The roll-out of hot school meals to every pupil, pilot programmes to combat holiday hunger, and increases in welfare payments are welcome. Yet they fall short of the more systemic change called for and needed.
It is now two years since the ESRI, supported by campaigners, proposed a second-tier targeted child benefit payment, which was warmly welcomed by Government and Opposition alike but has not yet materialised.
Targeted support does deliver help to those who need it most. Groundbreaking work, such as that which the Community Foundation has been doing with the National College of Ireland, has shown that early education and care intervention and prevention programmes are proven to work.
Focused initially in Dublin 1, and running also in communities like Knocknaheeney, programmes like ABC, which produce wrap-around supports for families, are having a real impact. Trained experts work with families to identify risks to a child's development and move to prevent them, while those children who need greater support are given safe spaces to assist their growth and development.
The Government has supported this pioneering work with roll-out to other parts of the country. However, what has been achieved is small compared to what could be done by using portions of the tax billions from the Apple case to invest in childcare, schools, community and youth centres, and other social infrastructure, which would benefit not just children but people of all ages.
To those who follow political cycles, it will come as no surprise that right now, from the most expensive glass-fronted offices in our cities' docklands to community centres on the ground combatting addiction, poverty, and inequality, people are busy writing.
Denise Charlton: 'In Budget 2026, the Government must reflect on whether the moment for establishing think-tanks, special units or appointing tsars has passed. Surely now, the urgent need for systemic reforms and policies - for which independent research and evidence already exists - has replaced them.'
Whether you are an industrialist, financier lobbyist, advocate, campaigner, or community worker, you will know that now is the time to get your demands into Government through a pre-budget submission.
Many of our community partners are finalising their calls and finessing elevator pitches ready for when they bump into the local minister for a few seconds — to make the case for support.
In an increasingly uncertain world, there is no guarantee that our national wealth will continue. The opportunity to do something meaningful that will deliver long-term benefits for children, families, and communities could be slipping by with each passing budget.
In Budget 2026, the Government must reflect on whether the moment for establishing think-tanks, special units or appointing tsars has passed. Surely now, the urgent need for systemic reforms and policies — for which independent research and evidence already exists — has replaced them.
Denise Charlton is chief executive of Community Foundation Ireland, a philanthropic hub whose donors and supporters have provided over €160m to communities since 2000 to support an equality mission.
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