Poverty in Ireland - Stats - Galway County Council

NATIONAL PICTURE ON POVERTY

How is Poverty defined?

People are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to prevent them from having a standard of living, which is regarded as acceptable by Irish society. As a result of inadequate income and resources people may be excluded from participating in activities, which are considered the norm for other people in society. The definition of poverty used by NAPS is as follows:

People are living in poverty, if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living, which is regarded as acceptable by Irish society generally. As a result of inadequate income and resources, people may be excluded and marginalsied from participating in activities which are considered the norm for other people in society.

Types of Poverty

There are different types of poverty. Lack of money or limited income is common to any definition of poverty. When we think of poverty we may think of starving people, living without proper housing, clothing or medical care - people who struggle to stay alive. This is known as absolute poverty. Some people in Ireland , including homeless people, may experience this type of poverty.

In Ireland and other developed countries, poverty is more usually called relative poverty. In this case, people are considered to be living in poverty if their standard of living is substantially less than the general standard of living in society. The government's National Anti-Poverty Strategy reflects this. 'People are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living that is regarded as acceptable by Irish society generally'. As a result of inadequate income and resources, people may be excluded and marginalised from participating in activities that are considered the norm for other people. Relative poverty is made up of two key elements: income poverty and deprivation. The combination of these two elements is called consistent poverty.

Poverty is not the same everywhere. It varies, as each society's standard of living is different. Poverty also varies over time as living standards change. The income level that might have indicated poverty ten years ago is not the same income level today as living standards have risen. While people in poverty may have more money than ten years ago their position relative to average incomes in society may have deteriorated. If the incomes of the rest of society increase more than the incomes of people in poverty, people's poverty will have worsened.

Causes of Poverty

Poverty is not inevitable. Poverty is an outcome of the way society allocates resources such as money, wealth, jobs, education, housing, healthcare and so on. The political system, the labour market, the social welfare system and the taxation system all influence the allocation of resources in society. Other factors, many of which are inter-related, that influence the likelihood of being in poverty include:

Having a job or not and the type of job Size of family and type of family, e.g. one parent, couple, couple with children etc Age People's social circumstances or social class Gender Disability Educational experience Ill health Whether people own/rent a home Experience of discrimination Sexual orientation

Poverty stops some people from participating as equals in everyday life, from feeling part of their community and from developing their skills and talents. This process is often called social exclusion. The Irish government has set a national policy target of reducing consistent poverty to 2% by 2007.

With all our wealth and prosperity in Ireland , What is it like to be poor in Ireland ?

Some Facts on Poverty in Ireland-2001

In 2001, 192,000 people (5% of the population) lived in consistent poverty.
Consistent poverty levels reduced from 14.5% in 1994 to 5% in 2001.
In 2001, more than 862,000 people (almost 22% of the population) lived on less than €164 per single person per week.
Relative income poverty levels increased from 15.6% in 1994 to 22%.
In 2001, 6% of the population live without basic necessities and on weekly incomes of less than €172 per adult.
4.9 % (192,000) of the population are on weekly incomes of less than €192 for an adult and €63 for a child and lack basic necessities.
6.5% of children (66,000) experience consistent poverty; 23.4% (237,000) are in income poverty. (Combat Poverty Agency, 2001)
Children in Ireland are almost twice as likely as adults to be poor. By EU standards, Ireland has amongst the highest rates of child poverty, even though it has fallen in recent years.
Demand for Housing is currently outstripping supply, particularly in the social housing sector. According to the Local Authority Social Housing Assessments of 2002 a total of 48,413 households were in need of local authority housing compared to 39,716 in 1999, an increase of 23.5 %.
The financial stresses faced by private renters on low incomes are more severe than the financial stresses from housing costs faced by low income house purchasers.(Against all odds, 2004 Combat Poverty)

Key findings from the 2000 Living in Ireland Survey

22% of the population were below 60% of median income in 2000, while 28% were below the 70% line.
For a single person, the 60% line was about €147 per week in 2000 and the 70% line was about €172per week.
Households whose head was retired were at a significantly higher risk in 2000 (34%) than in 1994 (8%) because of rapid increases in average household incomes since 1994 relative to state pension increases.
Where the household head was unemployed the risk of poverty remained high at 51%. However due to failing unemployment this group represented a much lower proportion of all those in poverty by 2000.
Where the household head was ill or disabled, the risk of falling below the 60% line increased significantly from 30 % in 1994 to 54% in 2000 -even higher than for the unemployed.
For households headed by someone's working full-time in the home, the risk of falling below the 60% line increased from 21% in 1994 to 48% in 2000.
Between 1994 and 2000, there was a sharp increase in risk for those in one and two adult households without children. Such increases are explained by the fact that a significant number of these households comprise older people many of whom rely on inadequate social welfare pensions.
Over the 1994-2000 period there was a slight increase in risk for households comprising 2 adults and 1 or 2 children. However, the risk for households comprising a couple with 4 or more children or a single adult with children remained high at 46% and 47% respectively.

[Nolan et al (2002) Monitoring Poverty Trends in Ireland : Results from Living in Ireland Survey. Dublin : Economic and Social Research institute. Combat Poverty Agency 2002]