Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leat. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing Deputy Smith and I to raise this Topical Issue. Deputy Smith has outlined the matter, which is serious. I am glad the Minister is here to deal with it. In spite of all the recovery, there are 750,000 people in poverty in Ireland today. There is much talk of boom and recovery but there has been no recovery for those people. It is very sad that 18% of adults living in poverty are employed: they are the working poor. That is a new type of poor, and it has become evident not since the Minister came into office but in the past ten years. These people are not even all employees, as many are self-employed and not included in any statistics.

I compliment Social Justice Ireland on today's report, and it is apt that the Ceann Comhairle allowed the Topical Issue. A job of work must be done on this. I know the programme for Government has commitments and I negotiated with the Minister long and hard about those. I look forward to working with the Minister in trying to make improvements. With the overall share of income being divided, too little is going to the bottom percentage of people and too much is going to the top 10%. There is a major imbalance that must be corrected. There are different steps we can take but work must be rewarding, as Deputy Smith mentioned. The Government must address the issue and ensure policies can be poverty-proofed. This must be done with rural Ireland in mind as well as there are many people affected there. As the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, knows, many small farmers are very poor and too proud to admit it. They will not even go to community welfare officers. A few have come to me because they cannot get family income supplement. They are embarrassed about being in that position and they do not want to be.

I know the Minister is a reforming Minister. I appeal to him to make reforms and look after these people. There are hundreds of thousands of children facing poverty and it is very hard on them going to school or anywhere else. We must look after our elderly and the new working poor.

See this speech in context