Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2004
70 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the CORI justice commission’s annual socio-economic review (details supplied); if she will work to ensure the Government reverses its low-tax economic strategy and invests more in social provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17895/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have noted with interest the recently published CORI socio-economic review 2003, which focuses on reducing poverty and achieving social inclusion. These are key objectives of my Department which we are pursuing through the implementation of the revised national anti-poverty strategy. The CORI review quotes EUROSTAT figures which compare Ireland's social protection expenditure in 2000 as a proportion of GDP with the rest of the European Union.
There are several important factors which must be taken into account when considering this issue. Ireland's elderly population is a third lower than the EU average requiring much lower expenditure on pensions, health care and care of the elderly and Ireland does not provide for supplementary pensions under the State social welfare system leaving these to be provided through occupational schemes, and by private insurance, the subject of the current PRSA campaign. Expenditure on these schemes is, therefore, not included as social protection expenditure.
The cost of the tax relief is not available to encourage people to make more pension provision; our level of unemployment is among the lowest in the EU thus requiring less expenditure on unemployment-related support. Furthermore, while Ireland has had low levels of investment in social and economic infrastructure historically, we are now financing a major catch up in infrastructure with public investment running to over 6% of GDP in 2002 compared to around 3.5% for the other cohesion countries, Spain and Portugal and 1% to 1.5 % for developed countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the UK.
The wider economic policies successfully pursued by this Government in recent years have resulted in very significant increases in employment levels; reductions in unemployment, particularly in long-term unemployment; heavy investment in infrastructure and public services; and substantial increases in real terms in household incomes at all income levels. The success of these policies is reflected most clearly in the sharp decrease we have seen in consistent poverty over recent years. Consistent poverty has fallen from 15.1% in 1994 to some 5.2% in 2001. The Government is committed to reducing consistent poverty to below 2%, and ideally eliminating it, by 2007.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House.
The Government's determination to continue to seek to improve the position of the most vulnerable in our society is reflected in the revised national anti-poverty strategy and in the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion for 2003-2005. These contain ambitious targets across several areas, including that of raising the lowest social welfare rate to €150 per week in 2002 terms by 2007. The implementation of these targets will ensure that we are brought further along the road to our overall goal of building a more inclusive society in which everyone has the opportunity and incentive to participate fully in the social and economic life of the country.
The way to tackle social exclusion and poverty is not by emasculating the various schemes the Minister and her Department undertook earlier in the year, such as the rent allowance scheme to which Deputy Ring referred, the community employment schemes and the crèche allowance. Fuel allowance has not increased for ages. Is the Minister aware of the report compiled by UCD with the Combat Poverty Agency which showed that one in ten Irish households suffer from fuel poverty? Help should be given for this appalling inability to provide heating in so many homes.
The Minister must also be aware that 25% of households depend on €140 or less per week. The UN development programme report in 2003 clearly showed that Ireland continued to have the highest level of poverty outside the US. Would the Minister agree this is a shocking verdict on the iniquitous policies of a Government which the electorate in the most recent opinion poll clearly regards as right wing and socially divisive?
Is the Minister aware that the wealthy have benefited disproportionately under the economic and social policies of this Government? Over seven budgets the Minister of Finance has allocated almost six times more resources to the top 30% of our society rather than to the lowest30%. Is that in the Minister's opinion a way to tackle radically the crisis of low Irish social spending clearly illustrated in the CORI report and backed up by the EUROSTAT report? How does the Minister propose to achieve our noble objectives of equity, fairness and social justice for all our people by pursuing such right-wing social and economic policies geared towards high earners? We have seen made to order tax breaks which benefit the very wealthy being added to Finance Bills at the last moment. Is that the way to carry on to ensure social inclusion?
I do not agree with the Deputy because we have quite ambitious targets which we wish to pursue over the lifetime of this Government, on which we have made several strides in the last budget, particularly in the €10 increase across the board with additional increases to other specific categories. On that basis it is our intention to reach the NAPS target of €150 baseline in 2002 figures by 2007 and to increase the old age pension to a level of approximately €200. We are well on target to deal with that and that shows the Government's determination to address the issue of income poverty.
We must take into consideration some of CORI's policy views when reading its report, which are not necessarily reflected in the Government's NAPS agreement. Most particularly we are not comparing like with like. We have low unemployment, low long-term unemployment and an increasing elderly population but not to the same extent as in other EU countries. Moreover, the indicators used by the CORI report are based on the Living in Ireland survey and not necessarily on the way in which we determine the figure through the consistent poverty indicators. I do not agree with the Deputy's view that we are not supporting those who are vulnerable, financially or otherwise.
We must move on to Question No. 71.
I wanted to ask a supplementary question.
Unfortunately we are out of time.
We did not commence on this question until 3.25 p.m.
There are six minutes per question and we are now over that time.
I hope the Deputy will not state that the Minister would not answer the question. I would be more than delighted to do so.
I am not blaming the Minister.
