Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Now, this is what I am wondering. The Trutz Haase test was a very good measure that went way beyond the actual way it was being done by asking people whether they had two coats, two pairs of shoes or a good overcoat or whatever it was. It seemed to be a very accurate measure. My question is, if I do it today and compare it with 20 years ago, will I find an improvement in these areas in the metrics or will I not? That is what I am talking about, because if not, we are failing. We are failing because the young people who are born into these communities are at a disadvantage when it comes to their own wellbeing into the future. Until we tackle that, we are failing. I am not sure what the total answer is to urban deprivation. People talk about rural deprivation. I have lived in a rural community for a long time. It is not the same thing, particularly for children. It is just not the same thing for children. If we look at third-level education, the more remote the areas, the higher numbers going to third level. That is just one measure. I am only picking that because it is an easy one to measure.

Does the Department do it against such broad indices? Are the programmes that are meant to be tackling deprivation actually succeeding on the wider scale? It is easy to say we had a success year with individuals. Are we having the group success we need to have as a society to give fair play and equal opportunities to every child who is born in this country?

I know what the Deputy is saying. We now call the model he is talking about the resource allocation model. We are still using those indices to support work under SICAP. Pobal worked with Trutz Haase to develop those indices. It is currently planning to update them in line with the new census data. Small area population data do not come out until September, and they are required to update those indices. They will be updated at the end of this year, and I will take note of what the Deputy has suggested. It is interesting to compare the results from the previous update, which was a couple of censuses ago. This update will reflect the latest census. It will be an interesting exercise, and I will speak to Pobal about doing a compare-and-contrast exercise to see what the differences are.