Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 310: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress made in her Department on the roll out of the poverty impact assessment to ensure that all policies are evaluated in terms of their potential impact on poverty and social inclusion; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24104/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Poverty proofing was introduced in 1998 on foot of a commitment in the first National Anti-Poverty Strategy. It is defined as "the process whereby Government policies and programmes are assessed at design, implementation and review stages in relation to their impact on poverty and on inequalities which are likely to lead to poverty, with a view to poverty reduction". Since 1998 it has been a requirement for significant policy proposals to indicate clearly the impact of a proposal on persons in poverty or at risk of falling into poverty.

Following a review of the poverty proofing process, the Office for Social Inclusion has produced a revised set of guidelines for what is now termed Poverty Impact Assessment. This change of name is intended to underline that the emphasis in the process should be on outcomes and that poverty impact assessment should form an integral part of the policy making process. The revised guidelines are designed to better assist policy makers across all levels of Government in evaluating policy proposals in terms of their potential impact on poverty. They include a number of new steps to make the process more useful and transparent and a requirement to monitor the impact of any policy change.

The revised guidelines have been published on the website of the Office for Social Inclusion and have been presented to all Government Departments, including the Department of Education and Science, who have responsibility for their implementation. My Department's Social Inclusion Unit, which is responsible for developing and promoting a co-ordinated response within the Department to tackling educational disadvantage at all levels of the formal and non-formal education sectors, is continuing to liaise with the Office for Social Inclusion with regard to the roll out of the guidelines.