Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The Minister is not answering this question. He will get a chance in a while. The statistics in Measuring Ireland's Progress 2004 make rather bleak reading for anybody who examines the social dividend of Ireland's affluent society and burgeoning economy. While we have a strong economy, we also have a very weak society. This social weakness is evident when one considers the report's finding that one in five people is at risk of poverty. Ireland and Slovakia share the highest rates of poverty in the EU. Our problems in this regard stem from the Government's low rate of expenditure on social protection, education and health. Ireland's rate of expenditure on social protection is the lowest of all the EU member states. This country's record on education is not much better. The average class size in Ireland is one of the highest in the European Union. I do not need to talk about the problems in the health service.

The sad truth that has emerged from the report is that we are not investing adequately in our people, including our children. Can the Minister of State outline how the Government intends to address the dichotomy between the quality of our society and that of our economy? While our economy is performing quite well, our society is quite weak. There are problems in areas other than social inclusion, education and health. Ireland's level of greenhouse emissions has not decreased to anything like the level outlined in the Kyoto Agreement. Ireland's quality of waste disposal is 50% below the EU average. Will the Minister of State justify what this country is doing to assist the world's poor? In 2002, Ireland's target level of overseas development aid was 0.45%, to increase to 0.7% by 2007, but the figure had increased to just 0.39% by 2003. We seem to have gone backwards since then rather than making progress.

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