Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The 8% rate of consistent poverty relates to 2014. I expect the 2015 rate will be lower and I will have that figure in November. I do not know what is the rate for 2016. Even in 2005 during a boom period, the rate was 7% but it has worsened in the past ten years, largely as a consequence of the great recession.

The targets, which are to bring down the consistent poverty rate to 2% by 2020 and to lift 90,000 children out of poverty, are ambitious. No country in the western world has ever managed to eliminate poverty because these figures are based on relativities and median incomes. However, if we achieved those targets, it would bring us into line with the Nordic countries and if Ireland were to move from being a middle ranking country in the European Union when it comes to poverty to being up there with the Nordic bloc, that would be a great achievement and that is the ambition.

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