Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Shortall may be aware that there is a social inclusion division in the Department of Social Protection which publishes extensive material on poverty and inequality both before and after budgets in Ireland. That material, much of which is prepared in conjunction with the ESRI, is widely available and I have appeared before the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection on several occasions to discuss it in some detail. I also appeared before that committee in the past two weeks to discuss the social welfare Estimates for this year and the priorities for 2015.

On the question of equality in the context of social welfare, Deputy Shortall will have noted the recent publication by the ESRI and the statements by Professor John FitzGerald which found that the level of income inequality in Ireland has decreased since the onset of the economic crisis. The ESRI has set out in considerable detail how those decreases in income inequality have come about. Professor FitzGerald has also acknowledged in the aforementioned publication that the maintenance of our social welfare system in Ireland, notwithstanding the crisis, has been one of the hallmarks of how we dealt with the economic crash in contrast to many other European countries.

I will make available to Deputies copies of the most recent publications by the social inclusion division on this year's budget. Unfortunately, I cannot share with Deputy Shortall the contents of the forthcoming budget. She will appreciate the long-standing practice in this House whereby we learn the contents of the budget when the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform announce it in the middle of October. That said, I would point out that in the agreement between myself and the Taoiseach on the revised priorities for the Government for the remainder of our term, we said very explicitly that, in the context of any relief that becomes available, our objective is to improve the situation for middle and low income families. We also specifically set out a number of measures aimed at assisting older people and those on social welfare.

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