Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1350.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the way her Department measures the effectiveness of Ireland’s economic policies in improving the living standards of those most at risk of poverty in the country, given advocacy groups have repeatedly highlighted that people in Ireland today still cannot afford necessities despite repeated budget surpluses in recent years. [32705/24]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1351.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to provide details on the monitoring mechanisms used by her Department to assess income sufficiency in Ireland. [32706/24]

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1350 and 1351 together.

The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole-of-government strategy with a five-year timeframe which aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU.

The Roadmap consists of 81 (originally 69) commitments to achieve seven high level goals across a number of policy domains and Departments. At end of Q1 2024, 50 commitments were fully achieved or achieved with ongoing delivery, with the remaining 31 commitments in progress. Implementation of the Roadmap is monitored by a Steering Group, which I chair, comprised of senior representatives of responsible Departments and representatives from the Community and Voluntary sector.

Significant progress has been made to reduce poverty and improve social inclusion during the lifetime of the Roadmap. According to the latest CSO Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2023 release the consistent poverty rate for the overall population is now 3.6%, This is the lowest rate of consistent poverty recorded since the start of the SILC survey and puts Government on track to meeting the ambitious target set out in the Roadmap for Social Inclusion of 2%. The consistent poverty rate for children has also decreased from 7% in SILC 2022 to 4.8% in SILC 2023.

The survey confirms that Government’s cost of living measures were effective at protecting the most vulnerable from the risk of poverty arising from inflation. Without these cost-of-living measures, the at risk of poverty rate would have increased from 12.5% in SILC 2022 to 13% in SILC 2023 but instead fell to 10.6%.

Ireland also continues to be one of the EU’s best performing countries for the poverty reduction effect of social transfers – without social transfers, the at risk of poverty rate would have been 34.1% rather than 10.6% - a poverty reduction effect of 68.9%.

According to 2023 EU SILC data social transfers reduced income inequality in Ireland (as measured by the Gini Coefficient) from 36.5% (before social transfers) to 27.4% (after social transfers) which represents an income inequality reduction of 33.2%. This is the highest level of reducing income inequality in the EU-27 and was markedly higher than the EU-27 average of 17.2 per cent.

It should also be remembered that the latest SILC release relates to income in the calendar year 2022and as such does not take account of any Budget 2023 measures paid in 2023 including the 2023 Cost of Living measures, or of course any Budget 2024 measures, which have been the largest social protection budgets in the history of the State.

The Department of Social Protection also uses the ESRI’s SWITCH model to undertake distributional impact assessments which include, among other things, an analysis of the change in disposable income for different household types and income quintiles. This is used before, during and after the Budget process.

Independent analysis of Budget 2024 undertaken by the ESRI, using the SWITCH model, found that measures announced under Budget 2024, will insulate most households from rising prices this year. It further found that the package of tax cuts, welfare increases, once-off payments and indirect taxes introduced under the Budget is progressive with higher gains for low-income compared to high income households.

Government is very much aware that some groups continue to experience higher levels of poverty than others, such as people unable to work due to long-standing health issues, single parent families and those living in rented accommodation. It is therefore welcome that the consistent poverty rates for all of the groups measured by the survey have decreased.

While we do not want to see anyone living in poverty, there is clear evidence of improvement in the latest poverty statistics and we are moving in the right direction. The commitments outlined in the Roadmap are being achieved and the rate of poverty is at an historic low. This is a result of informed policy decisions based on evidence and on consultation with stakeholders, including at the annual Social Inclusion Forum which took place on the 30th of May 2024 and the Department's annual Pre-Budget forum, which took place on 11th July 2024.