Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 July 2020
20. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps she is taking to address the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on disadvantaged communities; if her attention has been drawn to calls from an organisation (details supplied) to establish a special Oireachtas committee on poverty and inequality; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19337/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis question pertains to the prevalence of poverty in this country, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Has the Minister heard the calls from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which has acknowledged that the experience of the 700,000 people living in poverty has been compounded by the pandemic? It has asked for a special task force to be set up to examine poverty and inequality. Is the Minister willing to accept those points?
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. My Department regularly engages with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and I hope to meet some of its representatives very soon.
Life in Ireland has changed considerably over the past few months and many people in Ireland are living in very difficult circumstances. This is why my Department quickly rolled out supports like the Covid-19 PUP and, in conjunction with the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners, the temporary wage subsidy as emergency payments to support those most in need. Research undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, examined the impact on family incomes of Covid-related job losses and found that 400,000 families would see their disposable income fall by more than 20% in the absence of policy measures such as the PUP. It is important to note that the PUP reduced the numbers exposed to such losses and these measures were also effective in cushioning families at the lower end of the income distribution from such losses.
In addition, the four-week extension of the fuel allowance payment provided over 369,000 households with additional help for their fuel costs. Funding for school meals was made available to schools to the end of the academic year and also for the summer period. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance is available to people receiving the pandemic unemployment payment to help them meet the expenses of the new school year.
Tomorrow I will attend my Department's pre-budget forum, at which I will have the chance to speak with groups representing the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society and hear their views on the priorities for the coming budget. This is an important part of the budgetary process and I am looking forward to a good discussion.
I reiterate the Government’s commitment to the rigorous implementation of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2015. This roadmap provides for a robust governance structure to ensure the implementation of commitments. Progress will be monitored on an ongoing basis through the social inclusion roadmap steering group, which includes two external members, Sister Bernadette MacMahon from the Vincentian Partnership for Justice and Dr. Patricia Keilthy from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
The Deputy will appreciate that it is not my role to establish Oireachtas committees, I can assure him that I will continue to engage with the relevant Oireachtas committees on all matters relating to my Department, including issues relating to poverty and inequality.
This is a very specific matter regarding how we will confront the fact that poverty has been exacerbated during the pandemic. Poverty has a corrosive impact on people in every walk of life. We have had roadmaps but they have consistently missed their targets over the past ten years. What is being asked for by groups such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and other social justice groups is for special attention to be placed on matters of poverty and inequality. One group I am thinking of is that comprising one-parent families. As the Minister mentioned, one-parent families have benefited from the PUP but this group is the most statistically at risk of poverty. If we are telling the recipients of the PUP that they must actively seek work, we must realise that one-parent families cannot access childcare. How would a common-sense approach work for those in that cohort if they go to social welfare offices?
The roadmap was approved by the Government on 9 January 2020 and published on 14 January. It really is a whole-of-government strategy, with a five-year timeframe and a mid-term review in 2022. The best way out of poverty is to get people into work, and that is a key focus of the additional funding for job activation measures contained in the €200 million stimulus package I spoke of earlier.
The official poverty data is produced annually by the Central Statistics Office from the survey on income and living conditions. The most recent data, from 2018, indicates a national consistent poverty rate of 5.6%. The 2019 data is likely to show an improvement due to an increase in incomes and the impact of recent budgetary measures. However, it is expected the 2020 data will see an increase in rates across the majority, if not all, of the official poverty measures.
I want to confront the old trope that the best way of getting people out of poverty is to get them into work. The Minister should tell that to the 160,000 people who were working and still experiencing poverty before the pandemic. Despite being in work, they still very much experienced poverty. The best way to get people out of poverty is to provide an appropriate social safety net so that when they struggle, the State will step in and support them.
The Minister indicated several times that some professions will simply not return after Covid-19. It is why there was a cruel amendment to the PUP that people must actively search for work. What professions do the Minister and her officials believe will not return?
The economy is reopening and, as the Deputy knows, we hope the remaining businesses can open on 10 August. We are following public health advice so I cannot give the Deputy a timeline on when anything will open. It is all based on public health advice, which must be followed and which has served us well. We will base our decisions on that advice.
EUROSTAT has recognised that the Irish tax and welfare system is the most effective in the EU at reducing poverty. As Minister for Social Protection and Minister for Rural Development and the Islands, my focus is on ensuring that no person or community is left behind, regardless of where they are from. I will certainly work towards that. I look forward to working with the Deputy in achieving those goals because I am sure he is of the same opinion.
