Figures show the grip of poverty has still not been broken, writes Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent.
Poverty can sometimes be obscured by technical terms and statistics. Relative poverty, consistent poverty, median income percentiles, the list goes on.
Whatever words you use, the picture that emerges from yesterday's Central Statistics Office report is stark: Ireland is a divided society with a growing polarisation in income distribution and where poverty exits on a frightening scale.
The reality of life on the breadline is being unable to buy a winter coat, going without heating in the house, being unable to afford a substantial meal and living with everyday household debt problems.
Yesterday's report, the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (2003), shows that almost a quarter of the population were at risk of this kind of poverty. When poverty is combined with what statisticians call "enforced deprivation", where someone is unable to afford essentials such as two pairs of strong shoes or a warm waterproof coat, almost one in 10 people were said to be consistently poor. This deprivation was highest among lone-parent households.
One third of this group said the household could not afford to buy new clothes, almost a third were living with debt arising from ordinary living expenses, and one fifth said they had to go without heating at some stage in the 12 months prior to the survey due to a lack of money.
Child poverty is of particular concern because of its effects on children's health, chances of completing education and future opportunities. Comparison with previous reports are difficult as it replaces the ESRI's Living in Ireland survey which uses different measures and indicators. But we can take a number of conclusions from the research when put in context of wider reports into poverty and social inclusion in Ireland.
There is little doubt there have been some improvements in helping to address poverty in more recent times. Social welfare recipients have seen real improvements in their living standards in recent years.
Tax and welfare benefits in Budget 2005 will see the poor benefit more than the rich. The income of the poorest 20 per cent of the population will rise by between 2 and 4 per cent, while the top 40 per cent of families will see their income boosted by up to 1 per cent.
These figures are in contrast to the budgets of the late 1990s, when economic growth was at its strongest, when the richer sections of the population benefited disproportionately.
Even with the repositioning of the Government as "caring and sharing", it still broke its promise to increase substantially child benefit. The child dependents allowance, a payment that helps families struggling on social welfare, has been frozen since 1994, while the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance was not increased for a second year in a row.
The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Brennan, restated plans yesterday for a new second-tier welfare payment aimed at the poorest children in the State. Unlike the existing child benefit, it would be targeted at children at real risk of poverty and whose parents are either on welfare or on low incomes.
But this would be just one step on a long road towards combating poverty in a serious and fundamental way. Overall, Ireland has one of the lowest levels of social protection expenditure in Europe.
As a proportion of GNP the Irish figure is 16.5 per cent, compared with the pre-enlargement EU of 27.3 per cent. In countries such as Sweden it is 32.3 per cent.
Social protection expenditure includes expenditure on sickness, old age and disability and it relates to expenditure from taxation and from social insurance. Societies with high levels of social protection typically have low levels of poverty risk and vice versa.
An ESRI report last year, Why Is Relative Income Poverty So High In Ireland?, found that differences in age and employment profiles, household composition and single parenthood did not explain much of the variation between member-states. Rather, the disparity was linked to contrasting tax and welfare regimes in Ireland and the EU.
The report found that the introduction of a "Danish-type" social welfare system in Ireland would have a "very substantial" impact on reducing the number of people at risk of poverty.
If no other economic indicators changed, the reduction in relative income poverty would be of the order of 7 per cent, bringing Ireland to below the EU average for "poverty risk". But funding such a welfare system would lead to an increase in income tax rates of 10 to 11 per cent.
As an example, were a Danish-style welfare system to be introduced in Ireland, the report said, both the old-age non-contributory pension and the carer's allowance would rise from about €93 to €129.17 a week, and both disability benefit and unemployment benefit would rise from €89.52 to €194.13 a week, based on their 2004 levels.
While it is up to the Government to decide whether or not to tackle relative income poverty, we as a society must decide what sort of socio-economic model, what sort of society, we want to end up as.
If serious inroads are to be made into poverty, we need higher social protection expenditure, higher social welfare expenditure and greater equality in the areas of health and education.
The evidence from many of our European neighbours is that substantial poverty reduction can be achieved with economic growth and radical anti-poverty measures. What is less clear is whether people, and political leaders, here are willing to risk taking such bold moves.