Anti-poverty strategy
John Brady said poverty levels were unacceptable and asked where the Government’s anti-poverty strategy was. The Taoiseach replied that social inclusion policy and the Action Plan for Jobs formed the strategy and said the relevant social inclusion policy had been published two years earlier.
A Programme for a Partnership Government mentions the word "poverty" 19 times. We know from this year's Society of St. Vincent de Paul budget submission that more than 780,000 Irish citizens are living below the poverty line. That is 16.5% of the population. Interestingly, 105,051 of those citizens are currently in employment.
Alarmingly, the pre-budget submission from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul shows that it paid out more than €12.5 million in food vouchers to Irish citizens last year.
The Government has no anti-poverty strategy in place whatsoever. Where is the anti-poverty strategy? When will it be published?
Comment on this
The anti-poverty strategy is encompassed in the social inclusion policy and also the Action Plan for Jobs. As the Deputy knows, the phrase "below the poverty line" does not mean that a person is living in poverty. It includes people who are at risk of poverty but who are not in poverty, as well as those who are in poverty. The figure provided by the Deputy of the number of people who are in employment and also at risk of poverty represents about 5% of people in employment; 95% of people in work are not in poverty. That is one of the better figures when compared against European counterparts. The best thing we can do about that is to help people to work more hours, support people with the cost of childcare, implement the Action Plan for Jobs and reform the working family payment, as we have done already, which means that anybody with children who is working more than 19 hours a week is guaranteed not to be in poverty.