Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Being at risk of poverty is a broad and easily understood concept but the Department's social inclusion unit has a number of national renowned experts in the technical measurement of same. They work in conjunction with the European organisations on European data. Of course the major analysis and collection of the data is normally done by the CSO and the Survey of Income and Living Conditions in Ireland, SILC. This is a specialist area which was once done by Combat Poverty but during the last Administration the agency was abolished. The people in the combat poverty field who remained as civil servants now work in my Department and constitute the core of the social inclusion division.

The Government has a set of consistent poverty targets that must be taken into account when formulating budgets. A couple of months ago we published the social impact assessment, as it is now called and to use the terminology that is evolving in the EU. We published it on the Department's website. It shows the impact the budget had on different categories of people and the impact in terms of consistent poverty. The assessment constitutes a basket of achievements and people who are deemed to suffer consistent poverty are unable to achieve a number of them. International statisticians compile the assessment to reflect a modest but minimum standard of income such as having warm food and clothes and being able to buy shoes or heat a home properly.

We also have the European Union targets for 2020. The targets were set in 2010 and aim to lift 20 million people in the European Union out of poverty by 2020. Since the financial crisis in the European Union the target has gone way off and that distresses me. The biggest factor in reducing the achievement of poverty reduction is unemployment.

We have a good social welfare system for older people when compared with most European countries and, therefore, outcomes for older people are quite good. However, if a huge number of the population is out of work then the at-risk-of-poverty and consistent poverty indicators will increase. One can see that very clearly in countries such as Greece at present. In Greece more than 50% of young people are out of work and a large number of public servants have been sacked. Naturally, if a person is sacked his or her income will be reduced. The greatest challenge for Ireland is to get enough people back to work but working enough hours to produce a sustainable living wage. We reinstated the minimum wage. Initially, when people return to work they find that a lot of their work will be part-time or short-term. We need to adopt the concept of a living wage. That means the minimum wage, which by European standards is good, and enough hours of work to give people enough income.