Madam, - Minister for Social and Family Affairs Seamus Brennan was incorrect when he remarked that "if Bill Gates moved to Ireland the relative poverty index would have to be moved up" (The Irish Times, April 12th). For the Minister or the person he was quoting to make such a claim is to misunderstand how the number of people in relative poverty (or "at risk of poverty", to give it its official designation) is calculated.
If these numbers were calculated on the basis of calculating the average income of people in Ireland then the claim would be true. But the numbers are not calculated in that way. Rather, they are based on the median income - i.e. the income of the person in the middle of the income distribution.
To add a billionaire to the top of the income distribution has no effect on the income of the person in the middle of the distribution. This is one of the main reasons that all European governments, including Ireland, switched to using median income as the base for calculating the poverty line.
The measurement of "consistent" poverty by the ESRI has always been a contentious issue. Cori Justice Commission has always argued that it was a true measure of a particular sub-group at risk of poverty which should be targeted but was not the sole measure on which governments should base a poverty-reduction target (the latter point has been made by the ESRI for several years as well).
We pointed out on many occasions that when the indicators were updated, the numbers shown to be at risk of poverty would rise. This is exactly what has happened in the new ESRI study.
We again advocate that the Government should commit itself to reducing the risk of poverty in Ireland from its present level of 19.4 per cent to the EU average of 14.6 per cent.
At the end of the day the fact is that in 2006 some 18 per cent of people in Ireland live on an income equivalent to less than €200 a week for a single person. This is not enough to live with dignity. This number could and should be substantially reduced.
- Yours, etc,
Fr SEAN HEALY, Director, Cori Justice Commission, Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 4.