Budget 2024 delivers key universal measures for children – everything you need to know

Anna Martin

Budget 2024 was just announced with an obvious focus on child well-being, but is it enough?

With measures such as the provision of free school books, a 25 per cent reduction in childcare fees and the plan to expand the hot meals programme to 900 additional primary schools it seems like things are moving in the right direction.

Yet according to Chief Executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Tanya Ward more measures will have to be put in place to “break the cycle of poverty,” and this starts during the early years of children’s lives.

Though she acknowledges that cutting the cost of childcare with benefit many families, this is just part of a bigger picture that needs more solutions especially when it comes to education.

“Early years is the single biggest leveller but we know access to early childhood education and care is far from equal. For the most disadvantaged children, there are more barriers to accessing the services and support they need, when and where they need it,” Tanya explains, “To reach these children early in their life, we need a shift of focus to bring the services to them.”

But that begs the question of how can this be done and what sort of impact will this have on these children? Tanya advocates for a The Delivering Equality of Opportunity In Schools model or DEIS as it’s more commonly known.

“There is compelling evidence of the positive outcomes these types of programmes can have. We know that children who availed of similar programmes in other countries had improved IQ scores, reading and mathematical skills, social skills and better education and employment opportunities.

“The programmes also reported a decrease in young people repeating years in schools and smoking and drug use,” she explains.

“Today’s Budget announcement includes an initial € 4.5 million to get the Department of Children’s (DCEDIY) new Equal Participation Model up and running. The Model will see a DEIS-style approach to early childhood education and care that focuses on children most impacted by poverty including Traveller and Roma children, a group often left behind in Budget discussions.”

Again, while this all sounds very encouraging and like the Government has truly shifted its focus to child welfare, Tanya explains that more needs to be done if the progress is to continue.

“Once-off payments will only ever have a fleeting impact on the children and families who are already struggling. It is welcome to see some permanent increases, including to the Qualified Child Increase (QCI; a welfare payment for children available for parents who are on social welfare).

“However, with the current cost of raising a child in Ireland, today’s announcement of an increase of €4 a week does not go far enough to break the cycle of poverty,” Tanya said.

“With the double child benefit payment coming at a cost of €179 million, it begs the question if that money could have been used more effectively to reach children whose lives are curtailed by child poverty.”