The Government needs to maximise benefits for children in next month's budget to help end child poverty in Ireland, an umbrella group of charities said today.
The End Child Poverty Coalition called on Finance Minister Brian Cowen to give children adequate income support and increased access to healthcare.
Brian Cowen: called upon to increase Child Dependant Allowance
Formed in 1999, the coalition comprises Barnardos, the Children's Rights Alliance, Focus Ireland, the National Youth Council of Ireland, OPEN (One Parent Exchange and Network), Pavee Point and the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
In a pre-budget submission, it claimed that the Child Dependant Allowance (CDA), which is given to the country's poorest families, has not been increased since 1994.
St Vincent de Paul spokesman John-Mark McCafferty called for the CDAs to be increased to €33 per week. Child benefit should be restored as a universal payment by removing the habitual residency condition, he added.
Mr Cowen will unveil the Government's public spending plans in the Dáil on December 6th.
The coalition called for a full medical card for families whose income is taxed at 20 per cent, saying that providing access to healthcare for children based on their parents' income results in poor health for the most marginalised children.
"It's probably hard for many people to believe but the fact is that one in 10 children in Ireland still live in consistent poverty and in lone-parent families this figure rises to almost one in three children," said Camille Loftus of OPEN.
The coalition also called for an increase in income thresholds for the Family Income Supplement (FIS) by €68 per week and an increase in the earnings ceiling for the one-parent-family payment to €400.
PA