Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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1600. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her targets for poverty including child poverty; if these targets are being met; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36722/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The national social target for poverty reduction agreed by Government in 2012 is to reduce consistent poverty to 4% by 2016 and to 2% or less by 2020. The child poverty target is to lift over 70,000 children out of consistent poverty by 2020. Ireland’s contribution to the Europe 2020 poverty target is to lift a minimum of 200,000 people out of ‘combined poverty’ (i.e. at-risk-of-poverty and/or basic deprivation) by 2020.

The latest national data from the CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2015 show improvements in the key poverty targets. Consistent poverty, having fallen to 8.8 per cent in 2014, stabilised at 8.7 per cent in 2015. A reduction of almost 5 percentage points is now required to meet the 2016 interim poverty target. The number of children in consistent poverty was 139,000 in 2015, reflecting a fall of 13,000 on the child poverty figures in 2014. A new figure of 102,000 children will have to be lifted out of consistent poverty to meet the 2020 child poverty target. The population affected by ‘combined poverty’ numbered 1.6 million people in 2015, reflecting a reduction of 162,000 people on the 2014 figures. Thus, over 350,000 people will have to be lifted out of combined poverty by 2020 to meet the Europe 2020 target.

The 2015 SILC results show that we have a long way to go to achieve the national social target for poverty reduction. Given the continuing economic recovery throughout 2016 and measures introduced in Budgets 2016 and 2017, I expect the figures for those years, when they become available, to show further improvement. I will continue to work with my Government colleagues to ensure that the economic recovery is experienced in all regions and by all families, households and individuals.

The Government’s strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion is set out in the updated National Action Plan for Social Inclusion. The Plan identifies a wide range of targeted actions and interventions to achieve the overall objective of reducing poverty. The goals include a focus on early childhood development, youth exclusion, access to the labour market, migrant integration, social housing and affordable energy. The Department will review the Plan this 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 for poverty reduction. This review will be undertaken in consultation with relevant stakeholders.