Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

We all know that we have a problem with people who are very clearly in serious poverty, whatever way we want to talk about it. People are really struggling to get by. In the opening statement, Dr. McDonell spoke about an economic boom, and a lot of commentators are using that language when we talk about boom-and-bust cycles, how to invest and all of those kind of things. At the same time, that is not translating into improving the reality for many working people and families.

Shockingly, we know from the ERSI that one in five children lives in poverty if housing is included. To me, that means one in five children is living in poverty because children have to live somewhere. I would like to hear the views of the witnesses on that because that would be very interesting. Is the institute measuring inequality, and if so, has it seen an increase in that inequality when we are talking about this so-called boom time?