Government claims success in tackling poverty

The number of people living in consistent poverty has more than halved since 1994, the Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern claimed today.

Launching a review of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy, Mr Ahern said the elimination of poverty was at the heart of this Government’s approach to social and economic development.

Citing figures from the Economic and Social Research Institute, he said the Government’s anti-poverty strategy had reduced consistent povery to 6.2 per cent in 2000, down from 10 per cent in 1997 and 15.1 per cent in 1994. Mr Ahern said consistent poverty among children has been halved from 17 per cent in 1997 to 8 per cent in 2000.

He said the Government’s aim was to reduce consistent poverty to two per cent and, ideally, to eliminate it altogether.

The consistent poverty measure takes into account the relative income level of a household or person and their experience of deprivation. However some experts argue the deprivation index does not reflect the basic necessitities.

While anti-poverty groups are likely to welcome the drop in consistent poverty, many will point to the undesirability of a society where income inequalities between citizens are increasingly pronounced.

Key targets in the Government’s programme include increasing the lowest rates of social welfare to €150 a week by 2007; the elimination of long term-unemployment by 2007; halving the proportion of pupils with serious literacy difficulties by 2006; and reducing the gap in premature mortality between low and high income groups by at least 10 per cent.

However Fine Gael TD Mr Brian Hayes decried the results. "No amount of spinning can hide the growing gap between the rich and poor in this country," he said. "The Government sidesteps the issue of relative income poverty because they know the gap in income terms is greater than ever."

"The target of €150 for the lowest rate of social welfare by 2007 amounts to an increase of €32 over the period of the programme. This is one of the most conservative ambitions I have ever heard," he said.

Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) and the Combat Poverty Agency are due to make statements later today.