Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The roadmap was approved by the Government on 9 January 2020 and published on 14 January. It really is a whole-of-Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe and a midterm review in 2022. The best way out of poverty is to get people into work, and that is a key focus of the additional funding for job activation measures contained in the €200 million stimulus package I spoke of earlier.

The official poverty data is produced annually by the Central Statistics Office from the survey on income and living conditions. The most recent data, from 2018, indicates a national consistent poverty rate of 5.6%. The 2019 data is likely to show an improvement due to an increase in incomes and the impact of recent budgetary measures. However, it is expected the 2020 data will see an increase in rates across the majority, if not all, of the official poverty measures.

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