THE Office for Social Inclusion (OSI) says Ireland needs to produce 50,000 extra childcare places, train 17,000 more childcare workers, and halve the level of illiteracy among disadvantaged children in the next five years.

It wants the government to build an additional 23,000 social houses, at a cost of €4 billion, and spend €100m on heating systems for 30,000 elderly people.

The poverty targets, contained in a report on Ireland’s social inclusion strategy and sent to Brussels last month, are likely to form part of the next national anti-poverty strategy (NAPS) due early in 2007.

The OSI, a semi-independent unit of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, develops the NAPS and monitors government performance in meeting its targets. It also updates the European Commission on Ireland’s national plans.

Some of the targets cover periods up to 2010, including measures agreed with the social partners in Towards 2016, while others are taken from existing government plans such as the national childcare strategy.

Seamus Brennan, the social affairs minister, has singled out child poverty as a priority. His department says more than 100,000 children have been “lifted out of poverty” over the past decade and he hopes to continue that trend with plans to reform the child benefit scheme.

Towards 2016 sets a target of an increase of 100,000 creche and childcare places over the next 10 years. The OSI’s report says 50,000 of these should be in place by 2010.

The report also identifies the integration of immigrants and providing access to “quality work and learning opportunities”as priority areas for action.

It suggests language barriers are a key hurdle in the integration of immigrants and calls for the employment of more than 500 language support teachers.

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