A report into child poverty has found that around one in five children in Northern Ireland are living in despair - but the statistic is probably even higher in Fermanagh, according to a children's charity manager.
Paul Kellagher, Children Services Manager, of Action for Children, believes the reason for that is because the average incomes for families in Fermanagh are "significantly below the rest of Northern Ireland".
“Sadly the one in five statistic does not surprise us in Action for Children but it does create great sadness," he said. 
The report, which was issued on March 11 stresses a lack of significant progress on the main child poverty indicators, with around 20 per cent of children here living in relative poverty before housing costs, and between seven and nine per cent living in low-income households that cannot afford basic goods and essential activities. 
Mr. Kellagher said it reflected what his staff see on the ground in Fermanagh daily and added that an implementation of a wider anti-poverty strategy is now needed.
“We have extra pre-work costs and in rural areas in Fermanagh to get to work you have to own a car. Those pre-work costs of just getting to work if you move away from Enniskillen or Omagh those costs are a further burden on parents.
“We have seen a lot of discussion recently on a child care strategy in the Assembly which is welcome because childcare costs are a very significant burden, especially in families where both parents are working."
Mr. Kellagher said that unfortunately Fermanagh and Northern Ireland did not have the subsidised childcare that they have in other parts of the UK.
But he welcomed “cross-party consensus to address that issue.”
“What my teams are seeing on a daily basis are families struggling to provide food, and heat amid huge energy price increases.
“We know that poverty has a detrimental effect on children’s education so by not addressing poverty we are impacting not only on Fermanagh children here and now but impacting on their long-term futures."
He said children "growing up in poor homes statistically will do less well in school and we also know that children growing up in the poorest areas are more likely to come to the attention of Social Services".
He added that they are also more likely to appear on the Child Protection Register and explained how poverty "affects children across a whole life cycle and also affects parents well-being with the continuous stress of worrying about how you are going to pay the next bill".
“We need to implement stronger measures to address poverty.”
Meanwhile, the report on Child Poverty in Northern Ireland examines the effectiveness of the 2016-22 Child Poverty Strategy and its impact on outcomes for children.
“Tackling poverty is a cross-cutting issue, and therefore an Executive-wide responsibility. 
The report lists a lack of significant progress on the main child poverty indicators.
“Existing research provides compelling evidence of the significant impact of growing up in poverty on a range of outcomes.
“Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to experience health inequalities, have lower levels of educational attainment and are more likely to experience poverty as adults," it states.
The report highlights that children in deprived areas are expected to live 11 to 15 fewer years in good health than their more well-off peers and that children receiving Free School Meals are twice as likely to leave school with no GCSEs.
Despite these serious impacts, the report finds that the Child Poverty Strategy set no clear targets for poverty reduction, nor was there any ring-fenced budget attached to it. It also notes a lack of focus on early intervention and preventative actions. 
In addition, the report highlights gaps in departments’ understanding of accountability arrangements and a lack of joined-up working between them in the delivery of the strategy.
It also identifies a lack of timely data and monitoring of outcomes, with many actions reported to have had low levels of participation or lacking a clear link to child poverty reduction.
As a result, the report concludes that it is difficult to properly evaluate how effective specific interventions have been, and this could make future planning more challenging.