In its revised National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS) published last February the Government set a target to reduce the numbers of those "consistently poor" to below 2 per cent of the population by 2007.
However, the document does not set a target to reduce "relative poverty", a term which politicians will always have difficulties dealing with.
Poverty defined exclusively in terms of the income of the wider population is more difficult to eliminate as it is a moving target.
In Ireland, someone is living in relative poverty if they live below the "poverty line" of half the average income.
However, someone in "consistent poverty" is living below this relative income poverty line and is deprived of any of eight basic necessities, such as a warm coat, a second pair of shoes or regular nutritious meals.
If a government can make sure that even those people living below the relative income poverty line are not deprived of these basic necessities, consistent poverty will be eradicated.
A growing trend of relative poverty in a society indicates an increasing gap between rich and poor.
The growth in relative poverty in Ireland means the people at the bottom of income distribution are getting further and further from those at the top. Relative poverty has been growing at the same time as consistent poverty has been falling.
While anti-poverty groups have welcomed the drop in consistent poverty, they warn of the undesirability of a society where income inequalities between citizens are prevalent.
They point out that the richest 20 per cent of the population received more than 40 per cent of budget giveaways over the last five years compared to under 5 per cent for the poorest 20 per cent.
Relative income poverty lines are widely used internationally. In the revised NAPS, the Government committed itself only to monitoring relative poverty.
While it sidestepped calls for fixed relative poverty reduction targets, the plan does include a commitment that social welfare recipients on the lowest rates of payment will receive the equivalent of €150 a week in 2002 terms by 2007.
This is the minimum amount necessary to guarantee that such people receive about 30 per cent of the average income.
This is the closest the report comes to setting a target loosely related to average earnings.