Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The ESRI has carried out an analysis of what has happened. If the Deputy thinks about this she might appreciate what I am saying. One of the most significant cohorts of women who get income support from social welfare are women who are on the State retirement pension, either contributory or non-contributory. Some 34% of all spending on social welfare goes to people who have retired and are on the State retirement contributory or non-contributory pensions, and widow's and widower's pensions.

The actuarial review of the Social Insurance Fund, which was last done in 2012, showed that the fund provides much better value to female rather than to male contributors. The at-risk-of-poverty rate of the very significant group of women who are retirees and on State pension is below 2%. The reduction of their at-risk-of-poverty rate, as with lone parents, because of social welfare transfers is among the highest in the European Union, at 60%.

The social welfare system, whether at pension age for people who have retired or for people of working age such as lone parents, is a huge protector against poverty because of the transfers made from people at work to people who are on social welfare.

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