Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 November 2006
104 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his Department has accepted the new indicators for consistent poverty levels recently proposed by the ESRI; and if this measure of consistent poverty will be used as a reference for targets set in the forthcoming National Anti-Poverty Strategy. [37664/06]
View answerThe ESRI's proposed revision of the original set of indicators used to measure consistent poverty, to take account of the rapid economic progress of recent years and of current living standards, is detailed in its report Reconfiguring the Measurement of Deprivation and Consistent Poverty in Ireland. The report, which I launched last April, is an important source in developing the new National Action Plan on social inclusion which will be published early in the New Year.
The primary objective of the consistent poverty measure is to identify those groups who are most deprived and vulnerable in Irish society in relation to basic living standards and to whom priority should be given across the range of relevant Government policies. It also facilitates the regular monitoring of the progress being achieved by these policies in reducing deprivation. In this regard, the ESRI has updated the original indicators of deprivation used to measure consistent poverty to provide a better reflection of what would be regarded currently in this country as basic living standards. They have found, on the basis of the new revised range of indicators, that the percentage of persons living in consistent poverty would not differ very significantly from the most recent percentage rate based on the original set of indicators. According to the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) this rate for 2004 was 6.8 per cent. The revised measure also shows that virtually the same categories of people are most at risk of poverty. These include lone parents, households with large numbers of children, those lacking educational qualifications, the unemployed and the ill or disabled.
The findings on poverty levels in the EU-SILC survey, the ESRI report and international comparisons becoming available on poverty will all assist in devising policies that will work towards addressing poverty and social exclusion in our society. To that end the parties to the recent social partnership agreement Towards 2016 agreed on the need to set real and achievable anti-poverty targets and further agreed that the approach to effective poverty measurement should be reviewed in the light of timing difficulties concerning EU-SILC. This work will be carried forward by the Office for Social Inclusion, based in my Department. The Office will be assisted in this work by a Technical Advisory Group which includes technical experts from the social partner pillars and from the ESRI.
