Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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48. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on the Central Statistics Office's survey on income and living conditions finding that the percentage of the population experiencing enforced deprivation has risen to 30.5%; and if she will introduce emergency social welfare provisions targeting those groups experiencing deprivation. [4907/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The recently published CSO release on SILC 2013 shows that the basic deprivation rate was 30.5 per cent, an increase of 3.6 per cent on 2012. The increase on deprivation in particular affected children, the unemployed, households with no one at work, and lone parent households. Overall, the rise in basic deprivation has affected all income groups and reflects the legacy of the economic crisis since 2008 on many low and middle income households.

The key measure of poverty from a policy perspective is consistent poverty, which is the combination of at-risk-of-poverty and basic deprivation. The rate of consistent poverty in 2013 was 8.2 per cent, a slight though not statistically significant increase on 2012. The Government remains committed to meeting the national social target for poverty reduction, which is to reduce consistent poverty to 4 per cent by 2016 and 2 per cent or less by 2020.

At-risk-of-poverty rate fell from 16.5 per cent in 2012 to 15.2 per cent in 2013. A key reason for this fall is the enhanced impact of social transfers in reducing income poverty. In 2013, welfare payments and other social transfers (including pensions) lifted a third of the population out of the at-risk-of poverty, thereby reducing the rate from 49.8 per cent to 15.2 per cent. This is equivalent to a poverty reduction effect of 69.5 per cent, as compared to 67.2 per cent in 2012.

It is clear that since 2012-2013, the period reported in this survey, there has been a recovery in economic growth and employment, with the unemployment rate falling from 14.7% in 2012 to 13.1% in 2013 and to 11.3% in 2014. Also indicators like the long-term unemployment rate show an improvement.

We are committed to delivering a new deal on living standards to ensure that economic recovery is felt by low and middle income working families. Thus, Budget 2015 increases support for families raising children, assists unemployed families with children to return to work and improves the financial position of vulnerable welfare recipients, including those living alone. I’m confident that these measures will be reflected in future poverty statistics.