One in five people in Ireland are at risk of poverty in what is one of the highest rates in the 27 EU member states, a report published today has found.
According to the Central Statistics Office's Measuring Ireland's Progress 2006, the fourth in a series of such economic reports, some 6 per cent of men and 7.5 per cent of women in Ireland were in consistent poverty in 2005.
The proportion of Irish people at risk of poverty, after pensions and social welfare payments are taken into account, was one in five (20 per cent) in 2005, one of the highest rates in the EU 27.
There is debate on the method of calculating poverty, however, and the Government has disputed the means used by some economists and statisticians for defining it.
The CSO report shows the progress made in Ireland in important economic, social and environmental areas and benchmarks compared to the other EU member states.
The employment rate in Ireland rose from 56.1 per cent in 1997 to 68.1 per cent in 2006. The rate for women increased by over 14 percentage points over that period, while employment rates for men were up by around 10 per cent, according to the report.
The unemployment rate also increased from a low point of 3.6 per cent in 2001 to 4.3 per cent in 2006.
However, Ireland had the third lowest unemployment rate in the EU 27 last year, at just over half of the EU average of 7.9 per cent. The report also finds Ireland's long-term unemployment rate, at 1.4 per cent in 2005, was lower than the EU 27 average of 4 per cent.
The study also found that Ireland's international trade competitiveness has deteriorated since 2000, mainly due to higher inflation and the appreciating euro.
On education, the CSO report finds that the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level in the school year 2003/2004 was one of the highest in the EU 27 at 18.3. Twelve of the other member states had a pupil-teacher ratio of less than 15 at primary level.
Ireland's net official development assistance to other countries was 0.42 per cent of gross national income in 2005, below the UN target of 0.7 per cent and the Government's interim 2002 target of 0.45 per cent.
Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 81.8 years for Irish women and 77.1 years for Irish men in 2005. This puts men 1.3 years above the estimated EU 25 average of 75.8 years, while women's life expectancy is actually 0.1 years below the EU average of 81.9 per cent.