Ambitious targets must be set to reduce poverty among the particularly vulnerable groups of children, women and older people, delegates at a seminar in Dublin were told yesterday.
The calls were made as the Government and social partners prepare to set new targets for poverty reduction in the revised National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS), due to be published in November.
The National Women's Council of Ireland, the National Council on Ageing and Older People and an umbrella group, Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty Initiative, hosted yesterday's seminar.
They expressed concern that the needs of women, children and older people are "not coming through" in the current review of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
"This is a cause of concern," said Ms Mary Murphy from the Society of St Vincent de Paul and the Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty Initiative. "There is still an opportunity to see targets and priority actions aimed at reducing poverty among these groups included in the revised strategy."
Ms Murphy said Ireland had one of the worst rates of child poverty in the European Union. The groups want the National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS) to include a target that no child should live in a household experiencing consistent poverty by 2006.
Consistently poor households are those where people live below the poverty line and lack certain basic necessities such as heating, electricity, and a substantial meal. By 2011, the groups say, no child should live in households with below 50 per cent of average household income.
Ms Orla O'Connor, from the National Women's Council of Ireland, said they were increasingly seeing the "feminisation of poverty". "Women living alone, female lone parents and older women are consistently at risk of poverty. We now have the resources to tackle poverty," she said.
In 1998, one in four women raising children or managing households on their own experienced poverty despite the current prosperous climate, said Ms O'Connor.
She said the Government should plan to eliminate consistent poverty in households headed by women by 2006.
"For the NAPS to be effective in reducing and eliminating poverty it requires a strong gender analysis of the causes and effects of poverty in Ireland," she said. Ms Sylvia Meehan from the National Council on Ageing and Older People said a council report showed elderly households continued to figure disproportionately in an analysis of poverty in the State.
"An anti-poverty strategy will be needed to ensure there is `joined-up care' for older people," she said. "Older people do not have, but clearly need, reassurance, advice and information about services that would pre-empt significant changes in their daily living. The health services in particular need a significant real-term increase in financial resources if they are to meet the needs of an ageing population."
Mr Kensika Monshengwo, from the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, a Government advisory body, said racism created poverty. He said the strategy should include mechanisms to ensure that policies which have the potential to affect minority ethnic groups were scrutinised to ensure they did not increase the levels of poverty experienced by these groups.