Nearly a third of Irish children grow up in materially deprived households, a major study by the OECD has concluded.
The definition of materially deprived occurs when a family cannot afford three or more out of nine items considered necessary for an adequate life. These include being unable to face unnecessary expenses, to afford a week’s holiday and also to struggle with utility and food bills.
By that measure 30 per cent of children live in materially deprived households in Ireland. The figures are contained in the latest Unicef Innocenti Report Card - Children in the Developed World. It measured levels of inequality in 41 EU/OECD countries.
Ireland currently has the 4th worst income inequality in the EU ranked just below the UK, Belgium and Bulgaria, with a gap of 76.3 per cent between the median household income and that of the bottom 10 per cent.
The median household income is not the average but the most common income bracket.
However, that gap is reduced to 41.5 per cent once social welfare payments are taken into account. By that definition Ireland has the 10th lowest income gap in the OECD.
The country with the lowest income gap is Norway (37 per cent) and Romania has the largest gap at 67 per cent.
The figures show that income inequality between the median and the poorest 10 per cent of the population in Ireland is lower than it was during the boom. In 2008 the gap was 46.7 per cent.
Commenting on the figures, Unicef executive director Peter Power said the income inequality gap would have been much wider if it were not for social protection payments.
He said the fact that 30 per cent of Irish children were living in materially deprived households was at odds with the Proclamation which promised to “cherish all children of the nation equally”.
He said: “This report demonstrates that as a demographic group Irish children are falling behind other sections of society.”
Ireland ranked in the lower half of the survey in terms of health inequality. The self-reported health of those in the median income bracket was compared to those in the lowest 10 per cent. These include psychosomatic symptoms like headache, stomach ache, feeling low; feeling nervous; difficulties in getting to sleep; and feeling dizzy.
Children from the lowest income bracket tend to self-report poorer health than those from higher income families.
Ireland was placed 20th on a list of 35 EU/OECD countries which measured such health inequality.
On educational achievement, Ireland is ranked 9th best and has the 13th highest level of life satisfaction in those countries surveyed.
Nevertheless, Unicef said the next Irish government should recognise that “all other groups in Irish society were better protected during the economic collapse than children”.
It has recommended that the next government places equality at the heart of child wellbeing agendas.
