Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We can be clear about the figures. The OECD report of 15 September is in the Dáil library and contains Ireland's ratings. It indicates that we rate really well, particularly given the incredibly destroyed economy that Fianna Fáil left us, together with the figure when we entered office of 330,000 people without work. The biggest element in poverty is people, particularly of working age, not having access to a paid job at a reasonable rate of pay for a reasonable number of hours. That causes more poverty than anything else. I am happy to say we now have 130,000 extra jobs since the Government came to office.

The at-risk-of-poverty rate fell from 16.5% in 2012 to 15.2% in 2013. Using EUROSTAT data, Ireland's at-risk-of-poverty rate of 14.1% was well below the EU average of 16.6% in 2013. I do not have later data than that with respect to national statistics. That is done by the CSO, based on a very wide range of interviews of significant numbers of people.

See this speech in context