A/HRC/17/34/Add.2 disseminated in order to ensure that participants understand their responsibilities and entitlements. 55. While job creation is an integral part of any economic recovery, it is vital that Ireland direct its efforts towards generating opportunities for sustainable, productive, decent work in which individuals can exercise and realize their human rights. To this end, the independent expert welcomes the introduction of the Commission of Taxation and Social Welfare to examine the interaction between employment and social protection to ensure that work is financially worthwhile. VI. The situation of people vulnerable to poverty A. Children 56. Historically, Ireland has had a relatively high rate of income poverty among children, by international standards. The Government has made laudable efforts to address this situation, resulting in significant decreases in the prevalence of child poverty and deprivation for most of the past decade.41 The primary factor in the reduction of child poverty has been the considerable investments in social protection measures, including the tripling of child benefit payments between 2000 and 2007,42 increasing payments to singleparent families, and introducing the Early Childcare Supplement. The proportion of children living below the 60 per cent threshold fell by 20 per cent from 2005 to 2009, and the consistent poverty rate among children decreased between 2006 and 2008.43 57. In recent years significant policy attention has been given to addressing child poverty, which is reflected in the NAP Inclusion’s identification of “adequate income support for children” as a high-level goal.44 However, despite the advances made, since 2008, child poverty has again been on the increase. Today, children are the group most vulnerable to poverty in Ireland. In 2009, 8.7 per cent of children were living in consistent poverty, an increase of 38 per cent over the previous year.45 One in every six children in Ireland (18.6 per cent) is at risk of poverty.46 58. The independent expert is concerned that recent budgetary adjustments will pose an additional threat to the already precarious situation of children in Ireland. According to UNICEF, were it not for government intervention in the form of social transfers and taxes, child poverty rates in Ireland would triple.47 The reduction of the child benefit payment by 15 per cent in 2011 (on top of a 10 per cent cut in 2010) will undoubtedly lead to an additional increase in child poverty rates. While measures have been taken to compensate families with low incomes for the reduction in child benefits,48 these payments are subjected to restricted eligibility criteria that may exclude children in need of support. 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 14 See SILC 2004 and SILC 2009. See NAP Inclusion, p. 32. See Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Health and Children, State of the Nation’s Children – Ireland 2010, pp. 158-160 (hereafter State of the Nation’s Children). NAP Inclusion, chapter 2. SILC 2009, p. 77. Ibid., pp. 35 and 77. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, The Children Left Behind: A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries, 2010, p. 22. Through the Qualified Child Increase, and the Family Income Supplement.