It is expected that the research, which was commissioned by the Department and is being undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, will be finalised and published by the ESRI before the end of the year.
Also being completed by the ESRI is a report into poverty in the 1990s in Ireland. This study utilises the 1994 Living in Ireland Survey to provide an updated picture of the extent of poverty in Ireland and who is affected. Both reports from part of a substantial programme of research being carried out at the ESRI sponsored by the Department of Social Welfare and the Combat Poverty Agency.
Significant progress has been made in recent budgets in bringing rates of payment up to the minimum identified by the Commission on Social Welfare. Increases in this year's budget brought all social welfare payments to the minimum of 92 per cent of the main rate, after compensating for inflation. The widow's-widower's contributory pension reached the main rate when the budget increases were implemented in June. The bulk of the remaining payments are now at least 95 per cent of the main rate. As the Deputy will be aware, the rate for contributory old age pension stands at 110 per cent.
Together with the national anti-poverty strategy, these ESRI studies and other key reports, such as that of the Expert Working Group on the Integration of Tax and Social Welfare, will contribute to informing public debate on the issue of poverty, while also providing a basis for assessing the adequacy of the current rates of social welfare entitlements and the standard of living of social welfare recipients.