John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hope we are on the same page. One person living in poverty is one too many, and 760,000 of citizens are living below the poverty line. The Government has set a target of lifting 95,000 children out of poverty by 2020. We must be serious about that. I can only take the Minister at her word, but there is no plan. Where is the action plan for social inclusion? Where is the road map for lifting citizens out of poverty? I firmly believe in the establishment of a social welfare commission and I welcome the fact that the Minister is seriously considering it. We can call it what we wish but there is a need to take the politics out of setting social welfare rates and to be serious about tackling poverty where we can, which is through setting social welfare rates. I asked the Minister to meet me a number of weeks ago. We agreed dates but, unfortunately, it did not happen. Can we do that? I want to progress this as there are great positive benefits. All the stakeholders agree that we must move this forward. Can we meet and discuss doing that?

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