Mr. Paul Ginnell:

I thank Deputy Paul Donnelly for the points he raised. I want to come back to one of the key issues. It is linked to the affordability of quality or healthy food and also the affordability of education and other services people need access to. A key point for us is related to income inadequacy being the basis of the unaffordability of healthy food and issues concerning access to education and transport that affect many families across the country. I do not know whether members are aware of the minimum essential standard of living. Research in this regard was carried out by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice and now within the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The data for 2022, published recently, show that of the 214 household types that depend on social welfare, 127 will experience deep income inadequacy in terms of affording a minimum essential standard of living, 60 will have an inadequate income and 27 will just about have an adequate income, based on the criteria associated with the minimum essential standard of living. That takes into account the costs of goods and services. As they become more affordable and accessible, it impacts upon the minimum essential standard of living. It is relevant for this committee in a wider context, not just in terms of the SDGs, to note that social welfare levels must be adequate so people can have a minimum essential standard of living. Based on the research, organisations across the sector are calling for a social welfare rate increase of €27.50. It is a big ask but this is just for people to stand still given the impact of inflation over the past year or so. It is not even about moving towards a minimum essential standard of living. It impacts households and access to a range of services and supports. It is extremely important to make this point in respect of the Government's targets or how it is meeting the SDGs.

The other point I want to make concerns the overall achievement of targets, which was raised by Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. While it may be reported that the Government is meeting its overall poverty targets concerning the SDGs, we know poverty levels are rising more generally, as mentioned by colleagues. It is extremely important to note, in the context mentioned by the Chair in the introduction, that it is about how the SDGs deliver for all groups across society. Even within the overall targets, there is the overall objective of leaving no one behind and reaching those furthest behind first. That is why we must consider not only overall targets but also how they are delivering for the subgroups. This is why disaggregated data are extremely important.

We know there are gaps. We know there are high poverty levels and high levels of unemployment among certain groups, which is relevant to SDG 8. These are aggregated data. There are gaps, for example, in respect of ethnic identifiers for some groups. Traveller organisations and others have called for greater use of ethnic identifiers. We know what the gaps are around, for example, access to health services for particular groups. The latest data on employment levels for people with disabilities depend on the census. The data must be more up to date than that. They are not adequate.

The survey of income and living conditions misses out on certain groups in society, such as Travellers, Roma, homeless people and so on. While it is important that we achieve the targets for the overall population, the Government must set an ambition for every group in society so that we leave no one behind. Coalition 2030 has published the report to draw attention to the fact that while it is important to achieve the overall targets, we cannot leave anyone behind. Disaggregated data are important to ensure we are not leaving anyone behind in terms of our ambition and how we measure our progress.