Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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607. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his Department's plans to introduce a new Action Plan promoting social inclusion in rural areas, in view that "The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025" is coming to an end later this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39025/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 is a whole of Government strategy, with a five-year timeframe, that 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, published in January 2020, is an overarching statement of Government strategy, which acknowledges the range of sectoral plans already in place that have social inclusion as a core objective, in areas such as education, health, children and childcare, community development and housing.

As the current Roadmap is due to conclude at the end of 2025, officials in my Department have commenced work on the development of a successor strategy. This includes a public consultation on the development of a new strategy, that took place from 10th April to 30th June 2025 and was widely promoted in the the press and on social media. Consultation from stakeholders also took place prior to, and during, my Department's Social Inclusion Forum, which took place on 8th May 2025.

Promoting social inclusion in rural areas, including our offshore islands and Gaeltacht communities, will be an integral part of the next Roadmap for Social Inclusion.

It is intended that my Department will prepare and publish the successor strategy to the Roadmap for Social Inclusion in the first half of 2026.