Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that child poverty and housing will be prioritised in the forthcoming budget.
Mr Martin said there would be “significant moves” in terms of child support payment and the working family payment.
The Department of Social Protection is working on the development of a second-tier payment, he confirmed.
“The Department of Social Protection are saying clearly to us [that] they’re not yet in a position to develop such a payment, but they will . . . bring to Government recommendations which will be decided by three party leaders and the ministers for finance and public expenditure,” he said in Cork, where Fianna Fáil is holding a party think-in.
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These measures will be designed to target resources at those who are facing the greatest difficulties in tackling the rising cost of living, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“So that it will be a focus, particularly in terms of any income supports we can enhance for families with children with disabilities and for people generally who have a disability and then of course the broader issue of the carer’s allowance.”
Mr Martin said that in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, inflation had spiked significantly. The impact of this had to be dealt with through targeted measures.
“We acknowledge the reality of where the figures are right now. It’s not satisfactory. And that is why we are very clearly saying that we’re going to target resources to children who are at greatest risk of poverty and who are in consistent poverty, and it’s not just through the income mechanisms,” he said.
The Taoiseach said the Government was looking at specific measures to target children in disadvantaged areas in terms of access to early education and childcare facilities, “and also in terms of housing-specific mechanisms to enable families in emergency accommodation to come out more quickly out of emergency accommodation into housing.”
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Mr Martin added that 25 per cent of the education budget now goes to children with special needs.
“We have a whole range of pressures on us now, in terms of measures that we have to take in the budget in terms of the allocation of funding to education, health and social protection.
“So it’s not possible to do it all in one budget, but we will do it over the next number of budgets. We’ve committed to doing it and we’re going to do that.”
Mr Martin said the national housing plan would be ready within the next month.
“We need more apartment buildings in addition to house building and that will be a focus of Government in the context of both the housing plan and also in the context of the budget.
“The fundamental issue is we need more capacity, we need some more supply.”
He added: "
The capacity to attract private sector investment is going to be key to reaching those targets in addition to what the State itself is investing. The State on its own cannot do all of those houses.”
He said the housing action plan will outline the degree to which that dependency has to be eased over the next decade.
“The State will stay involved hugely, in terms of both construction and social housing and in terms of the support of affordable housing, which is quite significant right now.
“The State’s intervention will continue, but to get to the figures we wanted – to get to the 50,000 to 60,000 per annum – we quite simply need more private sector, and particularly apartment building, happening.“
