Written answers
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Poverty Data
Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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900. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the tools or metrics her Department uses to measure poverty in Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1717/25]
Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Official poverty data is published annually by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). This is an annual voluntary survey of c. 5,000 households (c. 12,000 individuals) carried out by the CSO. The survey collects information on the income and living conditions of different households in Ireland, in order to derive indicators on poverty, deprivation and social exclusion.
This CSO survey is part of a wider European survey (EU SILC) carried out in every EU country under EU legislation and commenced in Ireland in June 2003. Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Commission, uses the results to compare income and living conditions throughout the European Union.
It should be noted that the income reference period for SILC is the previous calendar year. For example, the income referenced for the 2023 survey spans the period from January to December 2022. Information was collected from January to June 2023.
A person is in consistent poverty if they are both income poor and deprived. Thus, consistent poverty is the overlap of two component indicators: at-risk-of-poverty (measuring individuals whose household income is below 60% of the median) and basic deprivation (capturing individuals lacking 2 or more of 11 basic necessities).
The 2023 consistent poverty rate was 3.6% down from 4.9% in 2022. The at-risk-of-poverty rate also decreased from 12.5% in 2022 to 10.6% in 2023. However, there was an increase in the percentage of people living in enforced deprivation from 16.6% in 2022 to 17.3% in 2023.
Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
901. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons living in poverty in Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1718/25]
Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
Official poverty data is published annually by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). This is an annual voluntary survey of c. 5,000 households (c. 12,000 individuals) carried out by the CSO.
The 2023 SILC survey data, published by the CSO in March 2024, shows that the 2023 national consistent poverty rate was 3.6% down from 4.9% in 2022. This equates to approximately 185,000 people based on the 2022 Census figures.
This is the lowest rate of consistent poverty recorded since the start of the SILC survey.
SILC 2023 data further reports that the At Risk of Poverty (AROP) rate was 10.6% (equating to just under 546,000 people). This represents a decrease on the 2022 AROP rate of 12.5%.
Additionally, the 2023 SILC data show Ireland continues to be one of the EU’s best performing countries for the poverty reduction effect of social transfers (excluding pensions). The at-risk-of-poverty rate reduced from 34.1% before social transfers to 10.6% after social transfers. This equated to a poverty reduction effect of 68.9% in 2023.
However the SILC 2023 data did show that the percentage of people living in enforced deprivation increased from 16.6% in 2022 to 17.3% in 2023. The groups most likely to experience enforced deprivation were those: unable to work due to long-standing health problems (44.7%); living in single-adult households with children under 18 (41.4%); unemployed (37.8%); and living in rented or rent-free accommodation (36.5%).
Government is very much aware that addressing poverty needs continued and concerted action.
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