Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

Is the Minister's near obsession with the 2% figure not an exercise in spin, giving the impression that 2% poverty exists, with 98% of people not in poverty? Poverty is not an absolute measure but about lack of opportunity and societal disparities in wealth. Ireland remains one of the most unequal societies in Europe and is getting worse. What other measures has the Minister put in place to tackle those areas? Even if the Government reaches its 2% target, that does not end disparities in wealth or the lack of opportunity that so many people suffer. Those are the real measurements of poverty, but I do not see the Government tackling them.

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