Seán Ryan
Ceist:64 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Finance if he has yet carried out a poverty proofing exer cise in relation to Budget 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23482/00]
Written Answers. - Poverty Proofing.
The budget 2000 booklet contains distribution tables that show the impact of changes in the budget in respect of income tax, the health levy and PRSI, taking account of child benefit and family income supplement, for a number of household categories by income. In addition my Department is a licensed user of the Economic and Social Research Institute's SWITCH model, which shows the combined impact on the tax and social welfare changes per income decile, and has had access to the output of the model. The SWITCH model, which is a technical aid that can be used to assist with poverty proofing exercises, uses a nationally representative sample of households to analyse the distribution of budgetary changes in tax and social welfare.
The Deputy will appreciate that, in relation to expenditure measures, the responsibility for poverty proofing lies with the spending Department.