Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are coming towards the summer recess next week and when we come back in September it will be into budget time. Already, the pre-budget submissions are coming in and no doubt the Government will want to show the growth, improvement and recovery, as it did with the spring economic statement. Just looking at two statistics from the spring economic statement, the general Government debt is down to 105% of GDP and it is expected to go down by another percentage, and GDP growth last year in Ireland was the highest in Europe. What do those statistics mean in real terms to Irish people? What is being presented statistically as improvement, indicating the healthy state of the economy, is actually masking the reality in Ireland. The fine rhetoric and the statistics would give the impression that we are a template of how to turn a financial crisis around. No doubt it has been turned around for some people, but those statistics are masking the suffering of Irish people. I am talking about those on low incomes, lone parents and people with disabilities. I am talking about a community sector working on a shoestring budget and yet providing valuable services in child care, education and in addiction services.

In terms of housing, 3,300 people in Dublin alone are in emergency accommodation and the Dublin City Council housing manager states it cannot cope such is the extent of the problem. Looking at the disconnect, we have the growth and the health of the economy statistics and the reality. How can the statistics mask the reality? I suggest the answer lies in the way we measure poverty and that the current system is unbalanced. One statistic from the current system is that 6.2% of people are in consistent poverty. There are parts of Dublin Central and other parts of the country where the number in consistent poverty is double or treble that. We need to look beyond mere economic indicators as the only indicators determining our prosperity and well-being. For example, in the gross national happiness index, there are 33 indicators, including health, education, socio-cultural participation, community vitality and ecological diversity.

Does the Minister accept the need to look beyond a simplistic monetary measure as the sole indicator so that the Government will have real and comprehensive information about people's lives that would guide policy for the next budget?

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