Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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20. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on whether the official measurements of poverty give sufficient consideration of the extra costs of having a disability; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50611/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Social Inclusion Monitor, published by the Department, sets out the official indicators of poverty in Ireland as based on the CSO’s Survey of Income and Living Conditions. The main indicator is ‘consistent poverty’. It is measured by the overlap of two measures: those who are at-risk-of-poverty (below the threshold of 60 per cent of the median equivalised household income) and are suffering basic deprivation (an enforced lack, i.e. inability to afford, two or more items from an eleven item list of basic goods and services). Consistent poverty is the basis for the national social target for poverty reduction, which is to reduce consistent poverty to 4 per cent by 2016 and to 2 per cent or less by 2020, from a 2010 baseline rate of 6.3 per cent. In 2011, using the CSO SILC definition for people with a disability, the rate of consistent poverty for this group was 6.9 per cent, which was the same as the rate for the total population. The at-risk-of-poverty measure only focuses on income (financial poverty) and does not take into account the costs of living or the extra costs of disability. The basic deprivation measure, however, measures actual living standards. Thus, if people are facing higher costs due to disability, the impact of these costs will be captured through the basic deprivation measure due to the inability to afford basic necessities.

In 2011, the Department published a Social Portrait of People with Disabilities, as one of the lifecycle groups identified in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPinclusion). This report works from a model that understands disability in terms of how the individual interacts with their physical and social environment. The impact of a disability is therefore mediated by the resources people have, the services they can access, the environment in which they live and the attitudes they encounter. The national poverty target and high level goals pertaining to income support, employment and access to services in NAPinclusion are relevant to people with disabilities across the life course.

NAPinclusion has a specific goal in relation to addressing the barriers to employment for people with disabilities. Of particular concern to the Department is how the social welfare system can support and assist people in receipt of disability payments to access the labour market. While as a society we face strong economic and financial challenges, it is important that we continue to address the barriers to the social and economic participation of people with disabilities. In turn, this will enable people with disabilities to make their contribution to national recovery and to underpin future progress.