One in five children live below poverty line after housing costs, report says

A report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ERSI) reveals that one in five children live below the poverty line when housing costs are taken into account.

This amounts to more than 225,000 children, with Ireland ranked 16th out of 27 countries in the European Union in terms of its after-housing-cost poverty rate for children.

The figures from 2023 show average incomes fell by 0.6 per cent, leaving them 3.3 per cent below their 2021 level.

This is despite growth of 11.3 per cent in nominal income over that period, which has been outpaced by a 14.6 per cent increase in prices for the average household.

The before-housing-costs poverty rate stood at 12 per cent in 2023: similar to that in 2022 at 11 per cent, and 2021 at 13 per cent.

The link between childhood poverty and adult outcomes shows that those aged 25 to 59 who grew up in poverty are eight percentage points more likely to be in bad health and 15 percentage points more likely to be deprived compared to those who grew up in good or very good conditions.

Dr Barra Roantree, director of the joint ESRI-TCD MSc in Economic Policy at Trinity College Dublin and a co-author of the report, said: “This report suggests there has been no real progress in reducing levels of child poverty when housing costs are accounted for.

"It is hard to see how the Government can meet its own child poverty reduction targets without major reform: for example, through the introduction of a second-tier of child benefit.”

Dr Anousheh Alamir, a postdoctoral fellow at the ESRI and co-author of the report, said: “Reducing the intergenerational persistence of poverty requires narrowing the education gaps between those who grew up in financially disadvantaged versus advantaged households, as well as expanding healthcare access for children from low-income families.”