Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

From my interaction with constituents, which I maintain on a pretty regular basis, it does not seem that people are very much interested in history. They want to know what the Tánaiste, as leader of the so-called socialist party in Government, has done to combat poverty levels in this country. The latest CSO figures indicate that in rural Ireland - forgotten Ireland - 350,000 people were at risk of poverty. That means the last time poverty risk was measured in rural Ireland, 350,000 people were living on incomes of less than €10,500 per annum. The study also demonstrated that in rural Ireland, 560,000 people were without facilities that would be considered reasonable and normal in a decent society, such as the ability to go out for a night, heat their houses adequately and replace worn-out furniture, etc.

On 25 September 2012, exactly four years ago - the Government has been in office for that period - the Minister told me that the poverty targets were revised as one of the first actions of the Government. One revised target was to reduce consistent poverty to 4% by 2016. The latest figures for this indicate it is at 8.2%, although they are a bit out of date. Does the Minister believe it is a realistic ambition to achieve that target of a 4% level of consistent poverty by 2016, which is just a few months away?

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