Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this Topical Issue matter. Deputy Carey and I have combined on this matter and I will use two minutes to speak on it. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, for taking this Topical Issue matter, which relates to a very important report. It is the only report of its type I am aware of in Ireland at present. It was commissioned by Clare Public Participation Network, PPN. I acknowledge the presence of Ms Sarah Clancy from Clare PPN, who is in the Public Gallery. A significant effort went into this report. It was done on a shoestring budget of €17,000 and was authored by Dr. Conor McCabe. It deals with poverty and marginalisation in County Clare at a granular, county level. It is a report I have never seen the likes of before.

I will address some of the issues that came up in the report. In Clare at present, there are approximately 2,800 people on our housing list. Some 1,500 of them are people who desire to move to a different property for transfer reasons, but 1,300 applicants are without any home. Some are sleeping on couches and some are living in housing assistance payment accommodation but all desire a home for their families. I am sure many Deputies have looked at a website,insideairbnb.com, over the years. It drills down into the information on rooms and houses available on Airbnb every day of the year. As of today, there are 1,483 accommodation units available in County Clare on Airbnb. We have 1,300 people without homes in County Clare today. There is something systematically wrong when we have an adequate housing stock to put roofs over their heads, but we have some barrier preventing that from happening. I suggest the use of taxation measures and incentives to encourage these landlords to make their houses available. It is not about punishing people but incentivising a way to make these houses available for the general housing stock.

I have more to say and will come in shortly on that.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to discuss this important document, Towards an Anti-Poverty Strategy for Clare, and its findings and recommendations.

Clare PPN is a network of 331 community and voluntary groups in County Clare. The Minister of State will be familiar with their work through their sister organisation, Meath PPN, in his constituency. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission awarded Clare PPN funding through its grant scheme to carry out its research. Its report presents the findings from a nine-month research project led by Dr. Conor McCabe. The research is also informed by focus groups and two peer researchers, Ms Lily O'Donoghue and Ms Madge O'Callaghan. I attended the launch of the report yesterday evening in Buswells Hotel. The report points out key failures at national and local level in measuring poverty and, as the saying goes, what you cannot measure, you cannot address.

One of the key findings in the report is around housing, where the researcher drew upon data from the 2022 census. It states there are 58,148 dwellings of which 47,867 are occupied.

Some 4,912 are unoccupied holiday homes, and a further 5369 are vacant dwellings. Therefore, there are 10,281 unoccupied dwellings in County Clare, giving a vacancy rate of 17.68%. Another key finding relates to health. There is a glaring shortage of both dentists and GPs, the provision of which is well below the national average. In the case of dentists, County Clare has less than 50% of the national average. In respect of GPs, a figure of 33% below the national average was recorded. The report is clear on the lack of available data at the level of the State, local government and other relevant agencies to measure child or fuel poverty in County Clare.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí Crowe agus Carey. On behalf of the Government, I welcome the report to which the Deputies have referred, Towards an Anti-Poverty Strategy for Clare, which was published by the Clare PPN. Indeed, I welcome the representatives of the network who are here today. We know that the voice of lived experience is essential for good policy and good decision-making. Democracy is made stronger by allowing diverse views and interests to be considered as part of the decision-making process of local government. It is important that we hear from those groups who are socially excluded and whose voices may not be heard in our society. Therefore, this work of the Clare PPN is extremely important.

Addressing poverty continues to be a key priority for the Government. The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 was published in January 2020. The primary ambition of the roadmap is to "reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU." The roadmap translates this ambition into seven goals underpinned by 66 unique commitments that will help to deliver these goals. It is a whole-of-government strategy with a five-year timeframe and includes a mid-term review in 2022 to facilitate an evaluation of the impact of roadmap commitments. The social inclusion roadmap steering group, which monitors the implementation of the roadmap, has met seven times to date.

The most recent poverty data are from the 2021 survey on income and living conditions, which was published by the Central Statistics Office on 6 May 2022. There were welcome reductions in all three national rates for the key poverty indicators. Consistent poverty decreased from 4.7% to 4%, the at-risk-of-poverty rate decreased from 13.2% to 11.6% and the deprivation rate decreased from 14.3% to 13.8%. Notably, the statistics reflected the positive impact of Covid supports. Without the pandemic income supports, the at-risk-of-poverty rate would have been 19.9%.

While I am pleased to see these improvements across the key poverty indicators, I am keenly aware of the higher levels of poverty for certain groups, such as people with disabilities and lone parents. The continued implementation of commitments outlined in the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 will contribute to a reduction in poverty. One of the issues that is apparent from the work undertaken by Clare PPN is the challenge presented by not having official statistics available at a local area level. In this regard, mechanisms such as the PPNs provide opportunities to listen to key issues at a local level. I am aware that the Department of Social Protection each year hosts a social inclusion forum, where representative groups and individuals from around the country highlight the key poverty-related issues from their own perspectives. In preparing for this forum, the Department contracts the European Anti-Poverty Network and Community Work Ireland to run regional workshops to ensure the lived experience of people from different backgrounds across the country is fed into the consideration and discussion at the social inclusion forum. These engagements and important contributions from the PPNs help to inform the Government's approach to tackling poverty.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Insightful as this report is, it becomes futile unless there is a strategy to respond to poverty in County Clare. That is the very thing Clare PPN and our partners are looking for. We have a Clare county development plan that contains headings on housing, retail and wind energy, but there is no heading dealing with poverty. Currently, that plan is under review. We need a heading and a strategy on poverty. The representatives of Clare PPN cannot speak from the Public Gallery today, but if they could they would shout out that there is no data set, particularly where childhood poverty is concerned. It is true that we collect data in the census, but census figures sometimes take five or six years to trickle down. A child who is measured as being in a home of a certain income level may have left childhood by the time they are accounted and factored for within Government strategy. It is particularly concerning that we are 33% down on GP service requirements and 50% down on dental service requirements in County Clare. That is how far we need to go to catch up with the national average, which itself is not good. It is something that I believe the Government and the HSE need to deal with. There is a whole lot more to be done to deal with the marginalisation of Travellers, mental health and pathways to education and jobs. We need a strategy. I think the Clare county development plan is the vehicle for that. We would love Government support for that.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish to acknowledge the presence of Sarah Clancy of Clare PPN in the Public Gallery. There is a need to address the issues highlighted in the report. For example, the whole question of attracting and retaining GPs, particularly in rural areas, needs to be addressed in a comprehensive way. It is clear that the rural practice allowance that is there is just not adequate. These issues need to be teased out and resources and policy changes need to be introduced. I am proposing that the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, who attended the launch of the report yesterday, arranges to engage directly Clare PPN, and that a cross-departmental working group is established, led by the Department of Social Protection, which includes officials from other Departments such as the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; the Department of Children. Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Health; the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. I ask that the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, engages directly with Clare PPN and establishes that cross-departmental group.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will certainly pass the constructive suggestions and ideas that have been put forward by Deputies Crowe and Carey to the Minister. It is the case in Ireland that social protection budgets over the past number of years have prioritised the introduction of measures that have had and will continue to have a direct and positive impact on poverty in the entire country, and including those who are living in County Clare. I know the Deputies have supported this. We have increased the weekly child-related payments, including the introduction of a higher rate of payment for older children in 2019. There have been increases in the working family payment thresholds and improvements in the means-testing of payments for lone parents. We have increased the living alone allowance rate, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the weekly rates of payment for all schemes in social welfare. We have expanded the hot school meals programme to include an additional 310 schools, which will cover around 60,000 children. This is very much to be welcomed. We have extended the national childcare scheme universal subsidy to all children up to the age of 15. The parent benefit has also been extended. Other recent cost-of-living measures include a fuel allowance payment of €125 paid in March 2022, with an additional payment of €100 in May 2022; and an increase of €100 in the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance. Further measures will be introduced next week in the budget. We are acutely conscious that people are struggling at the moment as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. The Government is keenly aware of this and is working very hard to make sure we can get best possible response to people in dealing with the issues that have been raised by the Clare PPN. The Deputies should be under no doubt that the contents of the report and the contributions of the Deputies today inform the work of the Department and the Government, particularly in the run-up to the budget next week.