Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will give the Minister some statistics which are truly shocking and a real indictment on our society. Some 760,000 people, one in six people and one in four children in the State, are living below the official poverty line. The poverty line is an income 60% below the median €27,000 a year, therefore, an income of €13,000 or less puts one below the poverty line. Some 110,000 people living below the poverty are in work. Just under a half of one-parent families suffer deprivation. One in 11 working lone parents were living below the poverty line in 2012 and, in 2017, it was one in five. Some 25% of those living below the poverty line do not have a medical card. Some 10,305 people are homeless, including 3,821 children, but everyone knows the figure is much higher. Just under 72,000 households are on the list for public housing but such housing does not exist. The figure would be much higher if account was taken of those people who transferred to the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme and were put on transfer lists: those people were taken off the official housing waiting list. One in five renters spend 40% of their income on rent. The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, cited figures this morning indicating it costs €1,200 per month, nationally, to rent, which is 20% higher than it has ever been. In Dublin, the cost is up at €1,700, which is 32% higher than it has ever been. I could go on. Some 194,000 additional people are on outpatient appointment waiting lists compared to 2015, which is an increase of more 50%, in a health service that does not work. The numbers waiting more than 18 months for treatment has risen by 715%. These are record levels. The Irish Patients Association's spokesperson stated this Government should look on this as a crisis.

Is this not a shocking and shameful situation in a wealthy country with a growing economy? Even leaving aside leprechaun GDP, we are in the top ten OECD countries. What I have given the Minister are statistics but behind each of those is a person, a child, a family and communities in deprived areas. On top of that, community groups are fearing a freeze on their funding in the forthcoming budget, having faced a cut of 40% during the past number of years and a loss of staff of 31%. They are seriously concerned about their ability to continue delivering services. I put it to the Minister that we have a poverty crisis to go along with our housing crisis and health crisis but there is no discussion about them or sense of urgency to address them. The Minister's party, Fine Gael, has been in a leading role in government for eight years and it seems it is prepared to accept this poverty, low wages, a housing shortage, rack-renting and a shambles of a health service as some sort of new norm for Irish society. Is the Minister and the Government not ashamed? Will they address these serious issues, particularly with a potential recession coming around the corner with, or without, a Brexit?

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