That this Assembly approves the Report of the Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (08/07/08R) on its Inquiry into Child Poverty in Northern Ireland; and calls on the Executive to bring forward a detailed plan of action

It is with a sense of achievement that the OFMDFM Committee reports to the House today on its inquiry into child poverty, after many hours of considering evidence on the matter. A report is all well and good, and talk is cheap; however, action is required to tackle the crucial challenge that faces Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom as a whole.

I commend the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister for establishing the elimination of child poverty as a principal long-term objective of the Executive, as outlined in the Programme for Government. Reducing child poverty by 50% by 2010 and eliminating it by 2020 are noble aims. However, the Committee identified several factors that could make those targets difficult to achieve.

The inquiry identified the rising cost of basic day-to-day necessities, such as fuel and food, as having the potential to increase child poverty in the short term. Granted, the Executive and the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister have little remit on those matters, so we must examine ways of lessening the impact of the current economic climate in the United Kingdom. The cost of filling a tank of home heating oil is a major burden for many families in Northern Ireland, particularly those on low incomes. Increased child poverty could be a knock-on effect of such costs.

One major way in which to tackle child poverty is to tackle unemployment. The Committee identified that a child in a workless home has a 58% chance of being in poverty; therefore, getting people into work must be a priority. I welcome the commitment in the Programme for Government to increase employment. If we can make more people economically active, we can make inroads into the problem of child poverty. To do that, barriers — such as lack of accessible childcare — must be broken down, and the path to employment must be made easier.

As a Member for South Belfast, I represent some of the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland where child poverty is an everyday problem. In areas such as South Belfast, we will see real progress towards the eradication of child poverty if we proceed with an agenda of getting people back into work and of improving income through greater uptake of benefit entitlement.

South Belfast suffers from one of the problems that were identified by the Committee’s inquiry, namely, it has pockets of deprivation that may be missed because they are surrounded by areas of wider affluence. It is crucial that such deprived areas are not missed when implementing the report’s recommendations.

Much responsibility for the outworking of the report lies with the Executive as a whole. Tackling poverty and its causes requires the Executive to take a co-ordinated approach, as cross-cutting matters, such as employment, health, social development and education, are the keys to tackling the whole issue. Children who are trapped in poverty must be at the forefront of the Executive’s thoughts.

The Executive have some good mechanisms in place — such as New Deal, early-years provision and Sure Start — to aid the implementation of the report’s recommendations. Let us take steps to improve education and health in deprived areas.

To me, child poverty is the manifestation of the more deeply rooted problem of a society in breakdown. Evidence shows that deprivation is often passed down through generations. If a family’s income is based on benefits, it is likely that the child will grow up to become a long-term recipient of benefits. Educational achievement follows a similar trend. Parents with low educational achievement often have low-achieving children. The key to eradicating child poverty is to break such cycles to remove the dependence on the state and to re-invigorate the family as an entity.

The problem cannot be solved simply by throwing money at either parents or children. It must be achieved through repairing the family.