Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 7 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 2

Written Answers. - Anti-Poverty Strategy.

Gerry Reynolds

Ceist:

436 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will consider the preparation of statistics and indices which would allow his Department to target major resources at areas of deep deprivation in the most effective manner in regard to spatial aspects of poverty; and if he will make these statistics available to all the development agencies. [8216/02]

Gerry Reynolds

Ceist:

438 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs his plans for the spatial targeting of poverty; and the input his Department, the Combat Poverty Agency and other agencies will have into this. [8218/02]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern):

I propose to take Questions Nos. 436 and 438 together.

Public policy has increasingly recognised that there are spatial concentrations of unemployment, poverty and exclusion where individuals, families and communities suffer a form of cumulative disadvantage. Such problems can best be addressed by targeted and integrated policy responses. This understanding has informed, Building an Inclusive Society, the review of the national anti-poverty strategy, NAPS, recently launched by the Taoiseach and myself.

One of the key elements of the revised NAPS is that the new national office for social inclusion will be supported in the development of a comprehensive data strategy by a technical advisory group, which will include specialists in data collection and research. Part of the focus of the data strategy, and an associated research programme, will be on the spatial dimensions of poverty, under the key NAPS themes of urban disadvantage and rural poverty. As this process moves forward, the issue of how the data, research and learning gained can become a resource for all actors in the social inclusion arena will be considered, with a view to making the targeting of resources and areas of deprivation more effective.

Building an Inclusive Society enhances our focus on urban disadvantage and rural poverty through the setting of specific key targets for these themes. The targets seek to build upon the progress made in tackling spatial disadvantage over the lifetime of this Government. Central to this will be the county and city strategies for social, economic and cultural development currently being drawn up by county and city development boards. These strategies will have a strong focus on the achievement of greater social inclusion within their areas. The RAPID and CLÁR programmes, the establishment of pilot social inclusion units in nine local authorities and the ongoing roll-out of the national anti-poverty strategy to local level will greatly assist in delivering on this objective.

At regional level, two regional monitoring committees have been established to oversee the delivery of the regional operational programmes of the national development plan, to monitor progress in development generally in the BMW and South and East regions, and to focus on the reduction of poverty and social exclusion within the two regions. My Department, in co-operation with the Combat Poverty Agency, is engaged with the regional operational programmes in developing a pilot project aimed at improving the assessment of the impact of the programmes on social inclusion.