Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on the proposals put forward by CORI in its socio-economic review 2006 as they relate to his Department's responsibilities. [31790/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The recently published CORI review Developing a Fairer Ireland is currently being examined in detail within my Department. The Deputy will appreciate that due to the broad ranging nature of the review, it would be impossible for me to cover or indeed comment on all of its detailed policy proposals in the context of this reply.

Addressing the problem of poverty and social exclusion in our society should receive the highest priority, as the review states.The commitment shared by the Government and the social partners in this regard is evidenced in the National Partnership Agreement, Towards 2016 and Ireland's National Report on Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion (NSSPI), 2006-2008, submitted to the EU last month, which outlines Irelands main priorities in this area.

A more detailed National Action Plan, which will fully take into account the outcome of the consultation process on the plan, undertaken over the last year, and the views of CORI and other key stakeholders is currently being prepared. Preparation of the plan is being coordinated by the Office for Social Inclusion in my Department and will complement the National Development Plan 2007 – 2013, which will include a Chapter on social inclusion. The strategies will encompass the lifecycle approach recommended by NESC in its report entitled the Developmental Welfare State. This streamlined approach is designed to ensure that Ireland has an over-arching strategic framework governing the major national social and economic strategies.

The CORI review also deals in some detail with the issue of child poverty. This is a complex area requiring coordinated action across a range of Government services and income support payments. Income support is one of the main ways of addressing child poverty. Towards 2016 contains a number of commitments in this regard, including:

Progressing towards the existing NAPS target for those relying on social welfare payments, i.e. that the combined value of child income support measures (currently 31%) be set at 33-35% of the minimum adult social welfare rate,

Progressing, as a priority, further work aimed at assisting children in families on low incomes, to include enhancing existing provisions or the introduction of new or reformed mechanisms.

Child income supports which avoid employment disincentives will be reviewed by the Department and this work, which will be informed by the NESC study on a second tier child income support, will be completed within one year, and

A review of the re-focusing of the family income supplement in favour of larger families with low earnings.

Poverty measurement, explored in detail in the review, is a particularly complex issue, and recognised as such in Towards 2016. There is a commitment in the agreement to review the approach to effective poverty measurement as part of the wider examination of data issues in the lifecycle framework. This work will be progressed by the Office for Social Inclusion's Technical Advisory Group which will be expanded to include technical expertise from the social partner pillars. Full account will be taken of the analysis by CORI on the issue.

It is important to recall in this context the level of progress already made in recent years and the platform which creates for progress in the coming years. Between 2001 and 2006 spending on social welfare has increased from €7.8 billion to €13.6 billion. During the same period the basic rate of social welfare payment has increased by 55.5 per cent, well ahead of the 16.4 per cent increase in the CPI, and the 28.2 per cent increase in gross average industrial earnings. This represents an increase in real terms of 33.6 per cent, in comparison to a real increase in industrial earnings of 10.1 per cent.

I am confident that we can continue to achieve a similar scale of progress in the coming years towards achieving that decisive impact on poverty to which Ireland with the other EU Member States made a commitment at the Lisbon Summit in 2000 and which is a key factor in achieving the fair Ireland sought by CORI. The National Action Plan currently being prepared will reflect that goal. I can give an assurance that full account will be taken of this important report by CORI, and the views of other stakeholders, in the preparation of the plan.