Because Childhood Lasts A Lifetime
Ireland’s largest children charity Barnardos is calling on the Budget 2026 to help alleviate child poverty. The Programme for Government set out clear intentions to lift more children out of poverty, improve health and wellbeing services for children and overall make Ireland a better country in which to grow up.
Unfortunately, over the past year Barnardos has seen official statistics show more children are living in consistent poverty. From our own cost of living survey findings there are still large numbers of children and their families going without or cutting back on essentials such as heating, electricity, clothing and food.
The number of children living in emergency accommodation has hit record numbers, surpassing 5,000 for the first time last month, leading to untold trauma and damaging childhoods across the country. The number of children left waiting more than a year for fundamental basic developmental services such as speech and language and psychological support has more than doubled over the past three years.
At the same time, Barnardos sees the challenges and difficulties Tusla faces regarding the high volume of referrals, often for the some of the most vulnerable children within the country, and the struggles to provide placements for those being taken into care.
The first budget of the new government must clearly set out definitive actions and measures to make good on their commitments with the Programme for Government. In order to give children the childhoods they deserve we need to see families getting more targeted financial supports, with more accessible services and supports requiring more funding for early intervention to help address problems as they first emerge.
We are calling on the government to:
- Increase child support payments by a minimum of €6 for children under 12 and €15 for those over 12.
- Extend fuel allowance to those in receipt of working family payment
- Address school costs by increasing capitation grant to reduce reliance on voluntary contributions and initiate pilot fund for digital costs
- Increase rates of housing assistance payments
- Increase funding for Tusla and voluntary and community organisation providing intensive trauma informed family support.
Barnardos CEO Suzanne Connolly said: ‘We witness too many children across the country going without daily necessities and access to vital services. Budget 2026 provides an opportunity for this government to make sure fewer children are going without essentials and more have access to early intervention services. Every day across our services we see the immediate and long term difference that early intervention can make to help a child thrive.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Barnardos-Childrens-Budget-2026.pdf
For further information, please contact:
Barnardos Press Office – 086 0445966
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