David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I thank the Leader for undertaking to examine my request yesterday for a debate on the issue of poverty. I hope it will happen in the coming weeks. Like Senator Rónán Mullen, I have concerns about the report of the Economic and Social Research Institute which was subject to some discussion in the House yesterday. The inferences flowing from it were that the 440,000 people out of work in this country were somehow better off than those in employment. I greeted much of what was stated in the report with circumspection and it now transpires that the ESRI cannot stand over it.