Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the alarming report by Social Justice Ireland today which highlights that we now have 750,000 people living in poverty in this State, an increase of over 100,000 since the onset of the austerity policies. Within that figure are 230,000 children living in poverty. It is a huge indictment of Government policies. I have to ask the question as how this happened. Was it by accident? Did we suddenly miss that we had so much poverty and inequality in the country? Of course, it was not by accident. It was as a direct result of policy choices made by both the last Fine Gael-Labour Party Government and by the Fianna Fáil Government that bankrupted the State.

Rather than choosing to increase taxes on those who can afford to pay more, both Governments chose to cut child benefit, jobseeker's allowance, one-parent family allowance, carer's allowance, means-tested fuel allowance and pension payments. That is how it has happened. It is an absolute disgrace.

I am calling for a debate on this issue. I ask the Leader to bring the Minister with responsibility for social welfare into the House. If we care about poverty, all of us need to ensure that the upcoming budget is equality-proofed. That way, rather than just talking about the problem, we can ensure that we do something concrete to make sure that this inequality is not exacerbated any further.