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European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland

EAPN Ireland CLG

The Mission of EAPN Ireland is to put the eradication of poverty at the top of the Irish and European policy agenda and empower groups working to end poverty to understand and influence policy-making.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Roxana Mînzatu (Executive Vice-President) and

13 Dec 2024 · Roadmap towards an EU anti-poverty strategy

Meeting with Jana Toom (Member of the European Parliament) and EUROPEAN TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION and

3 Oct 2024 · Social and Inclusive Growth

Meeting with Ciarán Cuffe (Member of the European Parliament) and Chambers Ireland and European Movement Ireland

29 Mar 2023 · Irish economists

Response to European Child Guarantee

7 Oct 2020

European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the European Commission's public consultation on the Roadmap for the Child Guarantee. An effective Roadmap will be an essential element in progressing implementation of the Child Guarantee and ultimately having an impact on Child Poverty. We particularly welcome the Commission’s proposal to launch the Child Guarantee as a Council Recommendation, with a strong implementation and monitoring framework, including through EU funds. This will give critical momentum to the Child Guarantee. However, it is disappointing that the focus of the Commission's proposals is on only on key services. This focus alone fails to address the elements of an integrated approach that are necessary to reduce poverty for children and their families. EAPN Ireland and the wider EAPN network, in their responses to the consultation on the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights, have highlighted that only an approach that recognises the multidimensionality of poverty and tackles this through an integrated approach will succeed in effectively addressing poverty. Any approach to addressing child poverty must be rooted in children’s rights, recognise that poor children grow up mainly in poor families, provide essential support to parents and families, and be implemented within an overarching EU anti-poverty strategy for all groups. This overarching strategy should act as a frame for the entire Action Plan implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights, to ensure that it impacts concretely on people’s lives and addresses poverty and its structural causes. The Child Guarantee is a welcome key initiative to tackle child poverty, but must ensure access to free healthcare, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition for all children, rather than a proscribed list. The Guarantee also needs to be embedded in an integrated 3 pillar approach based on the Investing in Children Commission Recommendation supporting 1) access to resources, 2) access to services and 3) participation. Failing to take this integrated three pillar approach means ignoring the Commission’s own Recommendation as well as all existing evidence on effective strategies to address child poverty. EAPN Ireland as a member of our European network, which is a partner in the Investing in Children Alliance, fully supports and endorse the submission to this consultation developed by the Alliance. This submission urges the Commission to: • Commit to a rights-based, integrated approach to tackle child poverty in the EU and broaden the scope of the Child Guarantee and the Council Recommendation by: • Proposing that the multiannual strategies are built around the three pillars of the 2013 Investing in Children • Incorporating parents’ access to resources (pillar 1) and children’s access to decision making (pillar 3) in the Child Guarantee Council Recommendation.
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