An anti-poverty initiative has today called on the Government to try to eradicate Ireland’s poverty problem by 2006.
The Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty Initiative urged the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, to eliminate consistent poverty in Irish households by 2006 and ensure that by 2011 no child should have to live in a household below the 50 per cent poverty line.
The group has claimed children, women and the elderly are the worst affected by poverty in this country and said Ireland had one of the worst rates of child poverty in the EU.
The Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty Initiative, National Women’s Council of Ireland and the National Council on Ageing and Older People jointly hosted today’s seminar, Setting Targets in the National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS).
The National Women’s Council of Ireland claimed there was an increasing "feminisation of poverty" in Ireland and said women living alone, female lone parents and older women were consistently at risk of poverty.
Spokeswoman for the council Ms Orla O’Connor said focused targets and a clear statement of practical outcomes for groups at high risk were necessary within the NAPS. She said the NAPS should state these clearly if it intends to work as a coherent strategy.
Ms Sylvia Meehan of the National Council on Ageing and Older People called for increased financial resources in the health service to meet the needs of the aged.
The National Consultative Committee on Racism also called on the government to include mechanisms in the strategy to tackle poverty resulting from racism.