Minister defines relative poverty

Relative poverty levels in Ireland did not reflect the true picture, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan said.

Mr Brennan said the relative income poverty measure was 22.7 per cent. "At the risk of attracting unwanted headlines, I do not believe 22.7 per cent of the people of Ireland live in poverty. That is the relative income measure and the word 'relative' is important. We are all poor relative to someone else."

Mr Brennan said he had been critical of the measurements before. "We must get our act together on how we measure poverty. We cannot use the figure of 22.7 per cent because it is not real."

The Minister was responding to Fine Gael spokesman David Stanton, who accused him of massaging the figures in that he had ignored the number of children living in households where the income was less than 60 per cent of median disposable income.

"Does he agree the number of these children is estimated to be an additional 240,000 on top of the between 60,000 and 120,000 children whom the Minister says are affected in some way by consistent poverty? Does he agree it is a disgrace in this day and age?" Mr Stanton said lone-parent households were exposed to a greater incidence of child poverty than dual or single income two-parent households.

Mr Brennan said he was targeting resources at consistent poverty.

Welfare spending in 2001 was €8 billion and this year it was €12 billion, with a huge proportion of that going into child benefit and much of it being targeted at families.

"Whatever differences there are about percentages, there is no difference about where poverty exists. All studies point out that those most at risk are families with children, mainly lone parents, larger families, those who are unemployed or disabled and older people living alone. I am targeting those areas with the carer's allowance, increased lone-parent's allowance, child benefit and a range of supports and I am making it easier for people to get back to work, the best way to tackle poverty for those able to do it," Mr Brennan said.

Mr Stanton said 148,000 children were in consistently poor homes, 14.6 per cent of all children, according to the latest CSO data from 2003.

Mr Brennan said consistent poverty was regarded as those deprived of basic goods and services with incomes below the 60 per cent threshold. "I will focus on consistent poverty and child poverty."

He added that consideration was being given to the possibility of a second-tier child benefit, which would deal exclusively with children in low-income households.