National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016
One of the primary concerns of the CWC (and of community development) is redistribution, which refers to the drive to eliminate poverty and social exclusion.
Poverty – get the facts 2008
Poverty – get the facts 2009
Measures of poverty
In Ireland, two measures of poverty are used – consistent poverty and relative poverty.
Consistent poverty is the official Government approved poverty measure used in Ireland, developed independently by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). This measure identifies the proportion of people, from those with an income below a certain threshold (less than 60% of median income), who are deprived of two or more goods or services considered essential for a basic standard of living from the following 11-item index:
- Two pairs of strong shoes
- A warm waterproof overcoat
- Buy new not second-hand clothes
- Eat meals with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day
- Have a roast joint or its equivalent once a week
- Had to go without heating during the last year through lack of money
- Keep the home adequately warm
- Buy presents for family or friends at least once a year
- Replace any worn out furniture
- Have family or friends for a drink or meal once a month
- Have a morning, afternoon or evening out in the last fortnight, for entertainment
The most up to date (2009) rate of consistent poverty is 5.5% an increase since 2008 when the rate was 4.2%, having reduced from 7.0% in 2005.
Relative poverty states that people are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living, which is regarded as acceptable by Irish society generally. As a result of inadequate income and resources people may be excluded and marginalised from participating in activities which are considered the norm for other people in society.
Poverty targets
The National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 sets out the approach until 2016 using the lifecycle approach. The overall goal of the strategy is to make a decisive impact on consistent poverty – to reduce the number of those experiencing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012, with the aim of eliminating consistent poverty by 2016.
