Vol. 543 No. 3
29 Mr. Sheehan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will make a statement on the situation concerning the review of the national anti-poverty strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26859/01]
The national anti-poverty strategy was launched in April 1997. The current overall target is to reduce the numbers of those who are consistently poor from 9-15% of the population to less than 5% by 2004 and we are well on the way to achieving this. Under the PPF, we made a commitment to revise and review the national anti-poverty strategy. The methodology underlying the strategy will be reviewed and existing targets reviewed and revised where appropriate. New targets will be considered under the themes of child poverty, women's poverty, health, older people, housing and accommodation and ethnic groups. Indicators will be considered under the national anti-poverty strategy themes so that achievement of targets can be monitored over time.
A number of working groups with social partner representation were established to facilitate the review of targets and the development of indicators and policies to meet targets. The areas covered were housing and accommodation, health, employment, education, rural poverty and urban disadvantage and income adequacy. A separate working group was also established to examine the issues in relation to benchmarking and indexation of social welfare payments. The reports of each working group were summarised by external consultants and a draft revised strategy was presented to a steering committee for discussion. The members of the committee include the convenors from the working groups, representatives from relevant Departments, and representatives of the social partners and relevant agencies. The work of the steering committee is now virtually complete with final amendments to the draft framework document currently being made. The draft revised national anti-poverty strategy will be submitted to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion for consideration. Following this, the revised NAPS will be presented to Government, which will make final decisions in relation to the proposed targets.
The review of the strategy allows for the consideration and inclusion of new themes that have emerged as national priorities over the past number of years. I am confident that the new strategy will provide the basis for further progress towards our goal of effectively eradicating poverty.
