Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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89. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way he plans to address inequality and social exclusion in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35934/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s strategy for addressing social exclusion and poverty is set out in the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPinclusion). This Plan identifies a wide range of targeted actions and interventions with an ambition to achieve an overall objective of reducing poverty under the national social target for poverty reduction.

NAPinclusion was recently updated for the extended period to 2017 to reflect new challenges and current policy responses to poverty. These include a greater focus on modernising the social protection system, improving effectiveness and efficiency of social transfers and strengthening active inclusion policies to address employment and social challenges.

NAPinclusion will continue to be implemented in 2017. The Department will review the Plan during next year, as it reaches the end of its current term, with a view to developing an updated plan for future periods. The Department will also review the national social target to 2020. These review tasks will be undertaken in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

Income supports will continue to play an important role in addressing social exclusion and income inequality during 2017. The value of core weekly welfare payments has been maintained in recent years as social transfers have proved extremely effective in lifting people out of poverty. The latest data for 2014 shows that Ireland was the best performing EU member state in reducing poverty through social transfers, as had been the case in previous years.

Budget 2017 took a step forward and sought to improve the value and impact of these income supports. During 2017, more than 840,000 people will benefit from the first increase in weekly payments for working-age adults since 2009.

The measures outlined above are designed to complement the impact of continuing economic recovery in reversing the increase in poverty that took place during the recession from 2009 to 2013. The latest available data indicate that the consistent poverty rate stabilised – indeed fell marginally – in 2014. It is anticipated that data for 2015 and 2016, when available, will show more marked declines in this core poverty measure resulting from the sharp fall in unemployment since 2014. Unemployment is also forecast to fall further next year.