This weeks ‘family budget’ has helped highlight the challenges Irish society continues to face regarding the provision of adequate and affordable childcare, the ability of second earners with children to join the labour force and the ongoing need for substantial investment in early childhood care and education.
One context for these children-orientated policy choices is the large number of Ireland’s children that live in poverty. The latest edition of the NERI’s Quarterly Economic Facts document examines these child poverty trends using data from the CSO’s Survey of Income and Living Conditions (indicator 5.1).
Overall, the proportion of the ROI’s children living in households whose income is below the 60% of median income poverty line has experienced limited change over the past few years. While the years 2006-07 recorded a decrease from 22.3% to 19.9%, by 2013 (the latest data) almost 1 in every 5 children (17.9%) lived in a household experiencing relative income poverty.
Over the period 2006-2008 the proportion of children living in households experiencing both relative income poverty and deprivation (consistent poverty) decreased from 10.3% to 6.3%. However, since then it has increased and in 2013 11.7% of the ROI’s children experienced consistent poverty.
Full details in the latest edition of the NERI's Quarterly Economic Facts.
A complementary blog looking at the challenges second earners, mainly mothers, face when deciding to return to work is available here.