The Government will today launch a 10-year social inclusion plan to eliminate consistent poverty within a decade.
However, despite significant progress in reducing the number of people experiencing poverty, it is clear the Government has already failed to meet key targets in its old social inclusion plan.
In the 10-year anti-poverty strategy launched in 1997 it aimed to reduce the level of consistent poverty to 2 per cent by 2007. Latest figures show that 7 per cent - or almost 300,000 people - were ranked as living in poverty.
Consistent poverty is a measure developed by the ESRI to determine the number of people at risk of poverty and who are regularly deprived of items considered necessary for a basic standard of living. This includes going without a substantial meal or heating due to lack of money.
Setting out the ambitious nature of today's plan, Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan said recently it would result in a "greater impact being made on poverty over a 10-year period than in any comparable period in our history".
He said that since 1997 an estimated 250,000 people had been lifted out of deprivation and hardship as a result of concentrated and targeted measures and supports. This progress would now accelerate, he said.
The new National Action Plan on Social Inclusion includes a package on education, childcare and pledges to dramatically improve literacy levels in disadvantaged areas.
A key element is its strong focus on employment as the best way of tackling poverty and includes €50 million of incentives to support 50,000 long-term unemployed - in particular lone parents - to join the workforce.
Overall, it aims to reduce by 20 per cent the number of people whose total income is derived from long-term social welfare payments by 2016.
About €15 million will be used for back-to-work training schemes for long-term unemployed. Although the training and education programmes are to be mandatory, nobody will be forced into employment subsequently.
The plan also pledges to maintain the value of the lowest social welfare rate at least at €185.80 in 2007 terms over the course of the plan, subject to available resources.
In the area of literacy, it promises to reduce the number of pupils with serious reading and writing difficulties in disadvantaged areas from the current rate of 27-30 per cent to less than 15 per cent by 2016. It also pledges to ensure that 90 per cent of the population aged 20-24 will have completed "upper second level education", or further education, by 2015.
Speaking prior to the publication of the plan, a spokesman for the European Anti-Poverty Network said Ireland now had the resources to eradicate poverty. The spokesman said: "We need to ensure everyone has a decent income, access to adequate services, pathways to appropriate employment and a chance to participate in decisions affecting their lives. None of these are currently available to people living in Ireland today."
