Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

2054. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the process involved in compiling the Pobal deprivation index; her plans to update the index; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14003/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Pobal HP Deprivation index is Ireland’s primary social gradient tool, used by numerous state agencies for the identification of disadvantage, in order to target resources towards communities most in need.

The updating of the index is commissioned by Pobal every five years, following the completion of the national census. The index is created and updated by independent geospatial, economic and social research experts who use a series of data points from the census to ascertain levels of disadvantage under the three domains of demographic profile, social class composition and labour market situation.  This gives a rounded view of the lived experience of disadvantage beyond simply measuring income poverty.

The construction of the Deprivation Index takes several months and begins once all census data have been prepared by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). On the advice of the CSO, the Government decided on 15 September 2020 to postpone the 2021 census to 3 April 2022. It is anticipated that the next update to the index will be published in Quarter 3 2023.