Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We are all in favour of jobs but the Cabinet sub-committee on social policy does not have responsibility for jobs. There is another sub-committee with responsibility in that regard. Perhaps the Taoiseach will clarify the position but I was of the view that the work of the sub-committee on social policy relates to addressing poverty and social inequality and ensuring that all citizens will have the basic things they need to live a dignified and civilised existence. The evidence clearly points to the fact that both the sub-committee and the Government are failing disastrously in the context of dealing with poverty reduction, social equality and providing for the basic needs of our citizens in order that they might live a dignified and civilised existence. All of the indicators are going in the wrong direction.

I appeal to the Taoiseach to read the recently published and very detailed Steps Towards a Fairer Future: Securing Economic Development, Social Equity and Sustainabilityby Social Justice Ireland, which states that, from the point of view of social equality and poverty, everything is going in the wrong direction. For example, it indicates that between 2010 and 2011 the at risk of poverty rate increased from 14.7% to 16%, the deprivation rate increased from 22.6% to 24.5% and the rate of consistent poverty increased from 6.3% to 6.9%. The position in respect of housing - the most basic need in order to function within society - was similar and now we have an unprecedented crisis in the areas of homelessness and housing. Matters are worsening on a daily basis. It is possible to have a working poor and, as is the case, massive numbers of people who are unemployed - and to seek to create jobs on that basis - while levels of poverty and inequality continue to increase. That is what is happening. The job of the sub-committee on social policy is to deal with those issues rather than telling us about the creation of 60 new jobs - which we all welcome - in Dundalk.

The question that arises relates to whether we are addressing poverty and inequality and the answer is we are not. The situation has become worse under this Government and the indicators are moving in the wrong direction.

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