Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The budget is poverty proofed every single year because the aim in giving back workers more of the tax the Government takes out of their pockets is to improve their financial status. The aim in increasing financial payments under every single scheme in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is to improve the financial status of those who are entirely reliant on social welfare. When we look at the recent poverty data from the 2017 survey of income and living conditions which was published in recent weeks, they show significant reductions in the two main poverty rates. The consistent poverty rate for 2017 was finally down, which I was not expecting because I felt the qualified child increases and the changes we had made to payments for lone parents in last year's budget would not have had as much of an impact as they did. We have moved from a consistent poverty rate of 8.2% to 6.7%, which is nowhere close to the targets we have set for 2020, but given that we increased significantly the qualified child increases in this year's budget, I am hopeful that next year's figures will be even better. The deprivation rate is 18.8%, down from 21% in 2016. We have a long way to go, but what is most important is that there is a continuing downwards trend in the rates of consistent and persistent poverty and that there is a continuing upwards trend in employment, which is the single and most effective route out of poverty for any person or family.

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