Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her view of the Combat Poverty Agency Report entitled, Tackling Health Inequalities — An All-Ireland Approach to Social Determinants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34816/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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This report, Tackling Health Inequalities — A Social Determinants Approach, shows how social, economic and environmental conditions play a major role in determining health in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Combat Poverty and the Institute of Public Health in Ireland jointly published this all-Ireland report, which makes a major contribution to our understanding of this subject. Full account of the findings of the report will be taken in future policy development.

Reducing health inequalities caused by social and economic conditions requires a comprehensive strategy across all relevant policy areas to reduce and in time eliminate poverty. Such a strategy is provided for in the National Action Plan for social inclusion, 2007 to 2016 and in a dedicated chapter on social inclusion in the National Development Plan.

Key objectives include increasing employment participation which provides the main path out of poverty, and steadily improving income support in real terms and access to essential services. The National Action Plan on inclusion contains 12 high level goals and over 150 targets to meet these broad objectives.

The overall goal of the NAPinclusion is to reduce the proportion of the population experiencing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016. The latest results from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions, released last November, indicate that the Government is on target to achieve this goal. It showed that the rate of consistent poverty in the population in 2006 was 6.5 per cent, down from 7.0 per cent in 2005 and 8.2 per cent in 2003.

Progress in implementing the plan and meeting its goals and targets will, in light of this report, significantly help also to reduce health inequalities.