An Economic and Social Research Institute study has found that poverty levels in this State are between one fifth and one quarter lower than was previously estimated because of the impact of non-cash benefits. That is comforting news for concerned citizens and the Coalition Government. But non-cash benefits are unevenly spread, being concentrated on ill, disabled and elderly citizens. The result is that large families do less well and a huge number of children are still seriously deprived.
A study published this week by the Combat Poverty Agency found that 170,000 children are growing up in poverty. Child Benefit is especially effective in helping families on welfare and on low wages. A doubling of that benefit - to about £25 per child per week - would go a long way towards ending deprivation among tens of thousands of children. Combat Poverty has estimated the cost at about £500 million.
The Government may well choose to use the current enormous Exchequer surplus for other purposes - more tax cuts or more roads, for instance. But it would be fitting if an unexpected windfall, in terms of DIRT tax settlements by financial institutions and overdue taxes and penalties from the holders of bogus accounts, was devoted to that section of society which suffered most from Government cut-backs in the 1980s. That should be a minimum.
Child poverty has been in decline since the mid-1990s, not because a decision was made to tackle this specific problem but because of rising employment linked to the economic boom. In 1994, 29 per cent of children were living in households with less than half the average income. In 1997 that proportion had fallen to 26 per cent. As Professor Brian Nolan, the author of the report pointed out, it is reasonable to assume that the improvement has continued since that time.
The 170,000 children below the poverty line are deprived in relation to food, clothing and other basic necessities. All the "props" which are seen as vital to middle class children - extra tutorials and classes in this, that and the other - are closed off to these children. For many parents, Saturday is the busiest day of the week as they ferry their children to one extra-curricular activity after another. For children living in poverty this does not happen. Because of the failure to provide community recreation facilities, the availability of a family car is a prerequisite to participation in many children's activities. Not all the parents of children living in poverty are unemployed but many who do work are on low wages. And single parents are not in a position to put in the number of hours at work needed to raise them above the poverty line.
Affordable childcare is diminishing by the day, figures released recently would suggest. For children living in poor families there is no question of their parent or parents being able to afford childcare so that they could go to work. In many cases, the cost of childcare would amount to more than their gross income. When the economic boom ends, as it will one day, Irish society should have more to show for it than a mobile phone in every pocket. Making the right choice now to invest a significant amount of the current State surplus in tackling child poverty could yield a large dividend in the future.