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

The CSO figures published yesterday are interesting reading for anyone interested in this area. It had two statistically significant findings, namely, that consistent poverty had fallen and that the deprivation rate had fallen. The deprivation rate has fallen from 30% five years ago to 18.8%, so the percentage almost halved in five years. Consistent poverty has fallen from 9% in 2013 to 6.7%, which is another very significant fall in poverty in the past four years. This is principally because more people are at work and unemployment has fallen by so much.

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