Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the size of the increase in the number of persons living in relative poverty as a result of social welfare cuts in Budget 2010 in view of the fact that the current relative income poverty line, updated with reference to the Economic and Social Research Institute wage level prediction, is €224.75 for a single adult and most social welfare payments to single adults are now €28.75 below that line; and if he has plans to meet with the Department of Finance to seek the reversal of the cuts. [15489/10]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 112: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if the Office for Social Inclusion or his Department carried out a poverty impact assessment of measures taken in Budget 2010 to reduce many social welfare payments; the details of its findings; if he will publish same [15360/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 110 and 112 together.

The Social Inclusion Division of my Department is carrying out a detailed analysis of the impact of the entire Budget package, and not just the social welfare elements of it, using the SWITCH integrated tax and social welfare model developed by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). This will include an analysis of the impact of Budget 2010 on the "at risk of poverty" rate as well as the combined impact of the three budgets, Budget 2009, the April 2010 Supplementary Budget and the most recent Budget. This is a complex piece of work using a methodology to enable changes in wages and incomes to be taken into account. As the ESRI itself has acknowledged the "scale and complexity of the Budget 2010 package mean that it will take more time than usual to analyse". Work on this analysis is continuing and is expected to be finalised in the near future. This work will be published and will provide an initial basis for assessing the impact on poverty of Budget 2010, pending the compilation and publication in due course of the official statistics for 2009 and 2010 by the CSO. These will be set out in the EU-SILC publications.

It should be noted however that the ESRI made some initial assessments of the Budget in its Quarterly Economic Commentary published late last year. As well as looking at Budget 2010 on its own, the Institute measured the impact on family unit and household income of the last three Budgets, that is, the October 2008, April 2009 and December 2009 Budgets together. They adopted this approach as these three Budgets represent the Government's consolidated approach to tackling the recession. The Institute found that, on this basis, the average income of the poorest households hardly changed, the income for the next group of households increased by around 2% while the middle to top income households experienced a loss of income.

There are no plans to further adjust social welfare rates of payment in 2010. The appropriate levels for 2011 will be considered as part of the Budgetary process later this year and in the context of continuing to reduce overall public expenditure and restoring stability to the public finances.