Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 Feb 2003

Vol. 561 No. 6

Written Answers - Anti-Poverty Strategy.

Dan Neville

Question:

51 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she will take to ensure that poverty proofing is an effective mechanism in Government decision making; the way in which this has worked to date; and when poverty proofing arrangements will be extended through local authorities and health boards. [4868/03]

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Mary Coughlan):

Since 1998, all memoranda for Government and key policy initiatives, upon which significant policy decisions have to be made, are required to be poverty proofed. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, published a major review of the poverty proofing process in December 2001. It found that there is a high level of formal compliance with the requirement for poverty proofing and noted that it had been successful in terms of sensitising policy makers to the poverty dimension of policy making. The report made a number of recommendations as to how the process could be further improved, including greater impact assessment and enhanced integration of poverty proofing with broader proofing requirements such as equality proofing.

The recently established office for social inclusion, which is based in my Department, has been charged with the task of developing a more effective poverty proofing process and with ensuring that it is appropriately operationalised in all Government Departments. Particular regard will be had to the findings of the NESC report in undertaking this task. In relation to extending poverty proofing to local authorities, the revised national anti-poverty strategy, NAPS, requires city and county development boards to take account of the principles, targets and development objectives of the NAPS in developing city and county strategies. The revised NAPS also provides that, over time, local authorities will develop appropriate social inclusion strategies.

Similarly, the attention of health boards has been drawn to the relevant targets in the revised NAPS, and they have been advised that social inclusion objectives should be reflected in their service plans. In the medium term, the intention is that the formal process of poverty-proofing will be extended to all areas of local government.