Ruairí Quinn
Ceist:42 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the position with regard to poverty proofing in his Department and across the Government. [29695/00]
Written Answers. - Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Louis J. Belton
Ceist:53 Mr. Belton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the way in which Budget 2001 was poverty proofed. [29780/00]
Ceist:
57 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the way in which Budget 2001 was poverty proofed by his Department and other Departments. [29683/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 42, 53 and 57 together.
Following the agreement among the social partners in July 1998 on a pilot poverty proofing system to assess all significant policy proposals for their potential impact on the poor, the Government adopted this process in official Cabinet procedures. Given its multi-dimensional nature, poverty cannot be solely the concern of one Department. Each Department has a responsibility and an obligation to ensure that its policy proposals are poverty proofed.
To assist in the implementation of poverty proofing, the national anti-poverty strategy unit, based in my Department, produced a set of guidelines on poverty proofing and worked examples which were distributed to all Government Departments last year. The unit has also met with the strategy's liaison officers in all Government Departments and discussed poverty proofing with them in order to assist with any difficulties.
As provided for in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, the poverty proofing arrangements are currently being reviewed by the National Economic and Social Council. I expect that the outcome of the review will enhance the current process and help address any difficulties that may constrain its effective implementation. Following the review my Department will consider further measures for improving the process.
All memoranda for Government and key policy initiatives upon which significant policy decisions have to be made, are required to be poverty proofed and this has been the case since late 1998. With regard to the budget, spending Departments are responsible for, and obliged to, poverty proof expenditure measures. In relation to my own Department's preparations for the budget, key principles of the national anti-poverty strategy are built into the development of the social welfare budget package from the start and influence the development throughout. Documents outlining the proofing of the social welfare budget package are available to anyone who expresses an interest from budget day, as they were last year. The documents outline the impact of the main proposals including rates increases, increases in family income support and child benefit, the effect of the package on overall income distribution and its effect on various family types. This budget, to an unprecedented extent, will direct the resources of the State at the needs of our disadvantaged citizens and communities. About half the total investment of £850 million goes to those on the very lowest incomes – those in the bottom 30% in terms of income. And over 70% goes to people whose incomes are in the lowest half.
As the Deputy is aware, responsibility for the overall poverty proofing of the budget is a matter for the Minister for Finance, annex C of the budget documentation, which is available in the Oireachtas Library, shows that, in addition to reviewing the impact of the budget tax package using the national anti-poverty strategy guidelines, the income tax package measures were assessed over various income distributions in conjunction in some cases with social welfare measures.