Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Adams raised the question of a poverty impact report. I will ask the Minister for Social Protection to carry out such an exercise. We will publish it in due course and debate it here. In the last year there has been an increase of 33,800 in the number of people in employment and of 20,000 in the number of people in full-time employment. Many of those people are on social protection of some sort or another. When one speaks to them one cannot put a price on their joy at having the opportunity to do a full-time job and thereby better their circumstances. They feel the dignity of employment and an opportunity to work and, maybe, change direction through that.

The best way to deal with and reduce poverty is to create employment and opportunities for jobs. If we had not taken the initiatives we took in the budget to provide for businesses, employment, access to credit and for employers to take people off the live register, we would not have done our duty. Some 113,000 people came off the live register, although they were replaced by others. This shows the extent of movement in the labour market.

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