Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 March 2004
217 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will address the level of poverty here as outlined by the Combat Poverty Agency in December 2002-03 outlining that over 70,000 households are in consistent poverty and 300,000 households are earning less than €175 per week. [10157/04]
View answerThe figures quoted by the Deputy are drawn from the analysis of the results of the 2001 living in Ireland survey undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI.
These results showed that in 2001, the level of consistent poverty had fallen to 5.2%, down from 15% in 1994, equating to approximately 71,000 households.
The results also showed that in 2001 some 23.4% of children — almost 280,000 — were at risk of poverty by virtue of the fact they were living in households where the equivalised adult income is below 60% of median income. In 2001, that 60% income threshold amounted to €164, roughly equivalent to €175 in current terms. It must be made clear, however, that this does not mean that 23.4% of children were living in households with incomes below €164 in 2001.
Individuals in a household with one adult and one child would fall below the income threshold only where their household income was less than €218 per week — €164 plus 33.3% for the child. In the case of a family with two adults and two children, the household income would have to be less than €380 per week to cause the individuals in the household to fall below the income threshold.
The national anti-poverty strategy, NAPS, together with the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion, NAPs/inclusion, provide the framework for the strategic response by Government to the issues of poverty and exclusion.
The reduction and eventual elimination of consistent poverty has been a priority goal of the NAPS since its inception. Latterly, the NAPs/inclusion covering the period from 2003-05, incorporates the commitments made in the NAPS and in the current social partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress.
The NAPs/inclusion sets out ambitious targets across the range of policy areas, including employment, income support, health, education, housing and accommodation, which impact on poverty and social exclusion. It also addresses the needs of certain groups within society who are particularly vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion. These groups include women, children and young people, older people, people with disabilities, travellers, prisoners and ex-prisoners.
Under the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress, a range of special initiatives are being undertaken, most of which are of direct relevance to combating poverty, including in particular the initiatives on ending child poverty, tackling educational disadvantage, supports for the long-term unemployed and other vulnerable workers, supports for carers, housing and accommodation initiatives and migration and inter-culturalism.
Institutional structures have been established to monitor and evaluate progress in all areas of the NAPS and NAPs/inclusion. These structures are facilitated and supported by the Office for Social Inclusion, OSI, in my Department. The OSI is also involved in co-ordinating the process across Departments and agencies and in implementing key support functions related to the strategy.
The challenge now is to sustain and build on the progress we have made to date so that we can achieve our overarching objective of eradicating poverty and building a fairer and more inclusive society.
