Vol. 573 No. 1
99 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the response of her Department on the view of the Combat Poverty Agency that the widening gap between Ireland's rich and poor will require a radical rethink of social security services. [24302/03]
I assume the Deputy is referring to the comments of the Combat Poverty Agency on the report by Dr. Virpi Timonen of TCD entitled, Irish Social Expenditure in a Comparative International Context, which the agency recently published and to the position in Ireland regarding relative poverty.
This report analyses Ireland's level of social expenditure by comparison to other OECD countries. It is necessary to point out, however, that there are a range of factors that need to be taken into account in making such comparisons. These factors are that the old age dependency ratio in Ireland is approximately a third lower than the EU average, requiring much lower expenditure on pensions and health care; Ireland relies fully on occupational and private pension provision to provide supplementary pensions. A majority of members of these schemes have not reached pension age and expenditure under these schemes is not fully taken into account for social protection expenditure purposes by EUROSTAT; Ireland's current level of unemployment is among the lowest in the EU; social expenditure is usually given as a proportion of GDP which includes a high proportion of repatriated profits – a significant factor in our case; the actual income available, GNP, is up to 15% less; and Ireland is financing a much higher level of public investment in infrastructure running to over 6% of GDP in 2002.
The ageing of the population will result in significant increases in expenditure on pensions, health services and care services in the medium term. It is for that reason that the Pension Reserve Fund, which has already reached €8.4 billion, is being set up to help meet the growing future pension liabilities and ease the burden on future generations of workers.
The main aim for those of working age is to continue to increase employment participation and quality jobs, the best security against poverty and social exclusion. This requires maintaining economic competitiveness and an active labour market policy to encourage and facilitate employment and to increase employability through education and training. Sound economic and fiscal policies are being pursued to maintain competitiveness and services and supports to improve employment participation and employability are in place and are being further developed.
The growing levels of employment participation, the low levels of long-term unemployment and the general increasing standards of living provide clear evidence that these policies are working.
