Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Child Poverty and Well-being Summit at the Aviva Stadium, Thursday 11 September 2025

Speech

Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Child Poverty and Well-being Summit at the Aviva Stadium, Thursday 11 September 2025

• From: Department of the Taoiseach

• Published on: 11 September 2025
• Last updated on: 11 September 2025

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Good morning and thank you John for the introduction.

Ba mhaith liom tosú trí fháilte a chur roimh na daoine óga a léirigh an físeán iontach sin atá díreach feicthe againn agus buíochas a ghabháil leo. Tá a fhios agam gur chaith sibh roinnt mhaith ama ag machnamh ar an méid is féidir leis an Rialtas a dhéanamh chun áit níos fearr a dhéanamh den tír seo do pháistí. Is mian liom a rá libh go bhfuil bhur gcuid teachtaireachtaí cloiste againn.

May I begin by welcoming and thanking the young people who produced the excellent video we have just seen. I know you have spent a great deal of time thinking deeply about what the Government can do to make this country a better place for children. Can I say to you directly: your messages have been heard.

The video captures what is important for children, but it is also a timely reminder of something we all know, but that we can sometimes forget.

Children and young people don't live their lives in silos. They live them in families, in friendships, in schools, in clubs, and in communities.

My purpose today is to provide leadership, leadership in driving forward our ambition to end child poverty.

But that leadership can only ever be as effective as the work that all of you do every day. You are the people who are making the practical difference on the ground.

Whether that is by working in a service or a school, in driving organisational ambitions, researching what is changing in children's lives, making or implementing policy, or by supporting a friend or neighbour.

I don't underestimate how difficult it can be to respond holistically to child poverty; but we are determined to keep getting better at it.

Every part of government will play its part, and every part of government will work with all of our partners to live up to the expectations of the very ambitious vision we have set ourselves.

Many of you will know that one of the key reasons I entered politics was my passion for education and a deep belief in its transformative power.

As was typical of my generation, my siblings and I were the first in our family to complete secondary school and enter third level.

The ambition and foresight from that Government to expand access to education laid the foundations for a highly skilled population.

Today, our levels of school completion area among the world's highest, and many of our young people are educated to an exceptional level and go on to work in some of the most innovative, most productive, most creative jobs anywhere in the world.

But poverty and disadvantage continue to undermine the promise of our excellent education system.

I am determined that one of the legacies of this Government will be a decisive impact on child poverty. But to achieve that I need all of you to be empowered and resourced to do all that you can.

For me, ending child poverty is about the dignity of every child and the dignity of the adults they will become. We know just how damaging poverty can be for long-term outcomes and well-being, but we also know that it negatively impacts whole communities and wider society.

We will all live better and safer lives if we can make sure that everyone can realise their potential.

We will all benefit from more vibrant communities, from a thriving and innovative economy and from a more cohesive society where we work together to respond to the challenges we will undoubtedly face in the years to come.

That is why we will focus our attention and resources over the course of this Government term. While we will make targeted investments in the years ahead, I believe the dividend will be universal.

I want us to work in a way that is coherent, making sure that those who need our help the most get it, and that we keep building the foundations for the society we all need.

If successful, we will have grown social and economic resilience and secured thriving and vibrant communities.

If we can give all children the start in life they deserve, we can make sure that no child grows up defined by poverty, but instead is defined by their potential.

Programme for Government

In the Programme for Government, we committed to transforming this vision into specific actions. We said that: "Child Poverty is not inevitable, and by ensuring a determined focus we can lift more children out of poverty, giving them the futures they deserve". And we have set out a concrete plan for how we will drive forward.

Later this morning a panel of four of my Ministers will discuss the ways in which their individual portfolios will contribute to the wider ambition in the Programme for Government.

While of course there are many more of my government colleagues who are working to reduce child poverty, I am particularly glad that these four colleagues are joining the discussion today.

Their participation reveals our commitment to making sure that the government response to child poverty is both comprehensive and cohesive, but also that we are deeply committed to responding directly to children and young people. These Ministers will specifically address how they intend to respond to the issues and priorities that have been identified by the Youth Advisory Group.

In social welfare, we have committed to progressively increasing income supports for low-income families, including exploring a second tier of child benefit.

The high rate of inflation in recent years has meant that the cost of food, heating, rent and other essentials has grown considerably.

Just as we have done in the past, I and the Minister for Social Protection will do everything we can to ensure that the incomes of families in poverty will keep up with prices.

We will also enhance our investment in vital services. The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality is expanding the network of Family Resource Centres that provide so many services in areas of deprivation.

She will work to make sure Tusla gets the resources they need to meet demand for child protection services, as well as for prevention services like the ABC Programme, school completion and parenting supports.

She is also expanding Equal Start, the early years programme which will ensure that children living with disadvantage have what they need to benefit from the state's considerable investment in Early Learning and Care.

In schools, the Minister for Education and Youth is working on a new DEIS programme, DEIS Plus, which will include additional investment for schools in the most disadvantaged areas.

She will continue to roll out free schoolbooks and, together with the Minster for Social Protection, hot school meals.

These investments will reduce the cost of education for all families, costs which are felt most by families where money is tight. And outside of school, we will make targeted investments in youth services, so that all young people have a safe and supportive environment to thrive.

Finally, I am delighted that the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation is also joining us today.

This time of year is extremely busy for him as he engages with all Ministers about future spending plans.

He also has responsibility for some of biggest issues which will impact the society today's children will grow up in including: infrastructure, long term planning and the role of technology and digitalisation.

I am grateful to my colleagues not only for their attendance today, but also the depth of their commitment to this agenda.

Child Poverty Target

After years of gradual decline in the rate of consistent child poverty, the most recent CSO data showed a very unwelcome increase. I want to acknowledge this head-on. This number, owing to the increase in the cost of living in 2023 and 2024, has galvanised us.

I am determined that when we look back, we will see this spike as an anomaly and not a reversal of the long-term trend. I am determined that we continue our good progress and return to driving down the rate of child poverty.

To this end, I am delighted that we have published the Government's new child poverty target.

By 2030, we are determined that no more than 3% of children should be living in consistent poverty. This would be the lowest figure in our history and would put us amongst the very best performers in Europe.

This target does not mean we think it is acceptable that a certain percentage of children remain in poverty. Far from it.

It is not acceptable that any child should live in poverty. But when children do experience poverty, we will do everything we can reduce its impact and get them out of poverty as soon as possible.

That is why, over recent years we have been building safety nets: in early years, in education and in communities. The purpose of these safety nets is to ensure that were things go wrong the consequences are minimised.

This new target is ambitious, both in making sure that as few children as possible experience poverty, and in our wider commitment to protecting children from the effects of poverty. That is why the target is accompanied by a dashboard of well-being indicators, which will capture more holistically how children are doing. Our success will be measured in terms of the well-being of children and whether we are closing the outcomes gap across all dimensions of their lives.

Focus of Summit

We cannot do it alone. Over the years, our greatest strides forward in social and economic policy have been achieved through partnership. In health, education, social work, early learning and care, housing, arts, culture and sport, we rely on a tapestry of organisations that together give so many children happy and healthy childhoods.

So our focus today is to come together, to take stock of progress, strengthen our resolve and set a direction so that every child has everything needed for a happy and healthy childhood.

There is a packed programme of events ahead of you.

I had the opportunity this morning to view the exhibition from our Local Creative Youth Partnerships, which I hope everyone finds time to see. And later you will hear a young musician from Music Generation, an organisation that do so much to give every child a chance to play music.

I am constantly impressed by the creative ability of our young people, and I am very pleased to have had the opportunity to see a snapshot of that today.

Sometimes as adults we do not take seriously enough just how important arts, creativity and play is. But it is through the experience of play that children understand their place in the world. It is our job to make sure that place is a fair and equal one.

We have also invited a diverse group of participants to make contributions to the 'Shifting the Lens' talks, which will give us all the opportunity to see the world through diverse perspectives and to think about how we might need to shift our own thinking or assumptions.

In the closing panel, you will hear from practitioners and policymakers who have been working together on some of the most difficult problems they encounter in their work.

Through a series of Action Learning Sets that we have sponsored over the last few months, these practitioners are directly taking on some of the most intractable challenges we face.

I met many of these people when we launched the Action Learning Sets earlier this year, and I have no doubt they are exactly the people we want working hard to deliver real change. And I can't think of anyone better to facilitate that conversation that the remarkable Joe Duffy, who himself has done so much to shine a light and drive positive change in the lives of so many individuals and communities across the country.

Can I also take the opportunity to once again congratulate Joe on his recent retirement and a truly outstanding career.

Finally, I am conscious that it is a rare to have such a concentration of service-providers, community and voluntary organisations, policymakers, academics and advocacy groups all in the same place at the same time.

So, we cannot and must not waste the opportunity to draw on all of your experience and expertise.

You can expect us to work you very hard today! We will ask you to contribute ideas about what the Government should be doing next, and how we can get there. My request to you all is to participate critically, creatively and constructively.

Introduction to Mike Ryan

All that remains for me is to welcome Dr. Mike Ryan and invite him to provide the keynote address today.

I witnessed first-hand the life-saving support the World Health Organisation gave to Ireland and so many other countries during the Covid-19 pandemic.

I can say with confidence that our families and communities were better protected thanks to Mike's expertise and clear-eyed focus on protecting the most vulnerable. On behalf of our Government, and I'm sure everyone in this room, Mike, we owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you.

In that context, and indeed in this current context, I think we also owe a debt of gratitude to our children and young people for their actions and sacrifices during the pandemic.

This is the year that babies born during the pandemic are starting school.

While those babies may not have understood what they were missing out on, so many of our children and young people were exemplary in following public health advice and transitioning to remote work and study.

They put important milestones on hold to stop the spread of a disease that generally affected people much older than themselves. They displayed an extraordinary degree of solidarity. They looked out for us.

Back to this conference, I have already said that ending child poverty is fundamentally about the dignity of every single child and the dignity of the adults they will become.

I have invited Dr. Mike Ryan to speak to us today because after a career responding to disease outbreaks and humanitarian emergencies, he has seen how these events expose the inequalities within and between our societies. He understands the deep connection between ending poverty and protecting dignity.

Chuir Mike in iúl, níos fearr ná aon duine seans, go mbeidh i bhfad níos mó ná vacsaíní ag teastáil uainn chun muid féin a chosaint ar dheacrachtaí amach anseo. Teastaíonn saoránaigh eolasacha agus chumhachtaithe uainn, geilleagar a chuireann poist mhaithe ar fáil, córas dlí a chosnaíonn cearta daonna, agus sochaí ina sásaítear riachtanais ábhartha ar nós cothú, tithíocht agus cúram sláinte. Is é sin le rá, teastaíonn domhan atá saor ó bhochtaineacht uainn.

Mike has articulated perhaps better than anyone that to protect ourselves against future challenges we will need much more than vaccines.

We need informed and empowered citizens, an economy that provides good jobs, a system of laws that protects human rights, and a society where the material needs of nutrition, housing, and healthcare are met.

In other words, we need a world free from child poverty.

This is very important work you are all doing, and I thank you for it.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.