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

This is the problem with statistics. The Minister knows what they say about statistics. It just does not reflect the human reality that people are facing. That is what was expressed at the weekend.

The OECD found last week that Ireland, out of 41 countries in the OECD, was 37th, or near the bottom of the league table, in terms of child poverty. Since 2008, child poverty has increased far more here than in almost every other country in Europe bar Latvia, Greece and Iceland. Other countries, even in the teeth of recession and adjustment, have improved with regard to child poverty. Here we have gone from 18% child poverty to 28.6%. Is that not the clearest evidence that, despite all the statistics the Minister throws around, the adverse measures he has been introducing in recent years disproportionately affect those on the lowest incomes? That is why people are on the streets expressing their rage. The Minister has to listen.

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