Dr. Claire Keane:

That is after housing costs. The reason we include that line is that the standard poverty measures the CSO publishes do not include housing costs. It looks at people's disposable income and their income after they have been paid or received welfare and have paid their taxes. That is what it is based on. That measure has been going down in the past few decades. However, if housing costs are included, which are a major reason for spending for people, there has been no change over a very long period. That is why the housing costs are included. As the Deputy said, they are not optional costs. People have to pay them so we think they should be given consideration. The CSO is doing work on this. The official poverty measures do not include it, but the CSO is also publishing statistics after housing costs, so it is important to look at both of them.