Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Does he accept the figures which show the rates of poverty are static? Last year 6.9% of people were living in poverty while the figure for the previous year was 7%. Little or no progress is being made on tackling the rates of poverty in our society. After a decade of so-called prosperity, why are 293,000 people still living in poverty? Given the targets set in the national anti-poverty strategy, what is the Minister's analysis of that figure? Why are so many people still living in poverty when there has been such economic prosperity in the past decade? More importantly, what does the Minister intend to do to reach the targets he has set?

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