Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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412. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason it is not standard practice across the board in the Department’s research, data collection and reports to account for the at risk of poverty rate both before and after housing costs; the reason the Department does not always measure the at risk of poverty rate after housing costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49900/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The data used by my Department in relation to poverty is the official poverty data published annually by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC).

This is an annual survey of approximately 5,000 households (or approximately 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 Union survey (EU SILC) carried out in every EU country under EU legislation and commenced in Ireland in June 2003 and published annually by Eurostat.

In relation to housing specifically, since 2020, as part of the SILC, the CSO has reported the At Risk of Poverty rate after deducting rent and mortgage interest.

My Department is considering the potential use of this data as an indicator to be included in the successor strategy to the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020–2025, which is being currently developed. This strategy is due to be published in the first half of 2026.

Other data provided by the CSO as part of SILC in relation to the financial burden of housing costs, and the poverty rates according to tenure status (owner occupied and rented or rent free) is reported by my Department annually in the Social Impact Monitor. This annual monitoring tool reports on progress towards the national target for poverty reduction, as set out in the current Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2025-2030.