Agency makes plea over help for poor
Ireland is underperforming when it comes to helping the country’s poorest people, it was claimed today.
The Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) said the deterioration in the public finances resulted in a reduced tax and welfare package of €1.6bn this year - down by over €1bn on 2007.
Giving a guarded welcome to Budget 2008, research analyst Jim Walsh said Finance Minister Brian Cowen helped those most at risk of severe poverty but could have done more.
Mr Walsh said although it had a priority on poverty and would reduce income poverty in Ireland, he stressed its impact was diluted by the small scale of resources offered.
“While the budget had a poverty focus, overall it’s impact wasn’t as great as we would have liked,” he said.
“We found those who benefited most were older women, whose risk of poverty was reduced by over 60% at the lowest threshold, while for male pensioners poverty fell by 44%.
“But the groups that didn’t gain as much were households with children because there weren’t enough resources being spent on child income support.”
A key point highlighted during the agency’s post-budget seminar was that welfare improvements accounted for the largest allocation of the budget, standing at €752m.
The proportion of the budget spent on welfare went up from 42% to 46% and on child welfare support went up from 9% to 12%.
But compared to Budget 2007, overall spending on social welfare was down €410m, on income tax down €670m, and on child income support down €50m.
“The average percentage gain across all income categories from Budget 2008 was 0.1%, or €1 per household unit per week,” continued Mr Walsh.
“In percentage terms this translates into a greater gain for those on lower incomes. The bottom 20% of income groups gained between 1 and 1.5% from Budget 2008.”
