Waterford TD told it is not possible to provide child poverty data by county
Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary said in response to a parliamentary question put to him by Waterford TD Conor McGuinness
It is not possible to break down child poverty data by county.
That is according to the Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary in response to a parliamentary question put to him by Waterford TD Conor McGuinness.
Deputy McGuinness asked for “the current number of children living in poverty; the breakdown of these figures by county; and the steps he will take to help the most vulnerable children”.
In the minister’s response, he said that poverty data is published by the Central Statistics Office, through the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), but due to “sample size constraints,” it cannot be provided on a county basis.
In other words, it can only be published on a national level.
Minister Calleary said he believed that child poverty has gone down.
He said the data published last year for 2024, showed there was a reduction in the child poverty rate of 8.5% in 2024 to 7.8% in 2025, “equivalent to an 8.5% reduction year-on-year”.
And that data does not include measures approved in the last two budgets, which he believes will have had a significant impact.
“While the impact of some of these non-cash measures may never be fully reflected in poverty statistics, I am confident that they, together with the increase in welfare payments, will bring us closer to achieving our child poverty target,” said Minister Calleary.
