Written Answers. - Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Liz McManus
Question:
54
Ms McManus
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
if he is concerned at the conclusions of a recent paper by a person (details supplied) entitled Inequality: The Price of Prosperity in a magazine (details supplied).
[15277/01]
The article contains a clear and concise summary of recent trends in relation to income equality and consistent poverty in Ireland. It identifies the need to ensure that everybody benefits from our economic growth – an approach to which the Government is strongly committed and which forms a central part of our ongoing review of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
The article makes the point that while ‘consistent poverty' remained broadly static between 1987 and 1994, it has fallen substantially since then giving a very different picture to income measures alone.
The distribution of earnings and household incomes is subject to a number of causal factors including falling unemployment, an increase in the employment participation rate of married women, and rapidly rising earnings – particularly at the top of the income distribution, and the impact of tax and welfare policies.
Clearly, it would be a matter for concern if those at the bottom of the income distribution were to fall further behind the average over the economic cycle. This can be an indicator of future problems regarding social exclusion, particularly as those towards the bottom of the income distribution tend to be relying on social welfare payments.
This Government has shown itself to be committed to improving the lives of all citizens and this is reflected in our policies. People dependent on social welfare have seen a real improvement in their living standards and, together with the dramatic progress made in terms of employment creation and unemployment reduction, there has been a marked reduction in consistent poverty in recent years.
However, much remains to be done. The Government has recently approved the Employment Action Plan 2001 which sets out our plans to increase further the employment rate.
The social welfare benchmarking and indexation group, established under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, is examining the issues involved in establishing a benchmark for adequacy of adult and child social welfare payments, including the implications of adopting a specific approach to ongoing uprating or indexation of payments. An interim report was published in April and a final report is due after the group finishes its deliberations in July.
The terms of reference of the group also require it to examine the issue of relative income poverty, another measure of income inequalities.
The success of policies in recent years in combating unemployment and reducing the level of consistent poverty demonstrates a tangible improvement in the lot of those on lower incomes, notwithstanding the very rapid increase in average incomes driven by the current economic boom. The success of future measures in the area of income adequacy as well as employment, education and other key areas will be necessary to ensure that these improvements can be maintained and enhanced.
