{"id":2043,"date":"2023-02-23T16:28:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T16:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/"},"modified":"2023-02-23T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T16:28:13","slug":"government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>There are now more than 671,000 people living in poverty \u2013 over 188,000 of them children<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The sharp rise in the number of people living in poverty in Ireland highlights the increasing level of income inequality in this country, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon.<\/p>\n<p>The at risk of poverty rate, as measured by the Central Statistics Office, was 13.1 percent in 2022, a 1.5 percentage point increase on the 2021 rate.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Gannon, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on Social Welfare, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe latest figures around poverty provide a worrying insight into the rising level of income inequality in Ireland. Social Justice Ireland now estimate there are now more than 671,000 people living in poverty \u2013 up more than 90,000 in a year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe number of children living in poverty in 2022 also rose by more than 24,000 to over 188,500. In addition, more than 143,000 older people are living in poverty \u2013 an increase of over 55,000 since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis week, the Government announced a number of cost-of-living measures, all of which were one-off. I\u2019ve repeatedly made the point that poverty is rarely a temporary situation for people, so one-off measures bring only brief respite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne-off measures will not address income inadequacy which, as the figures show, is widespread. Nor are they sufficient to insulate already-vulnerable households from more pressures around price increases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of starker statistics is that over 133,000 people living in poverty actually have a job. This proves that the notion that employment is the best poverty-reliever is a nonsense \u2013 it is only the case if the job pays a decent wage. These 133,000 \u2018working poor\u2019 highlight the importance of a Living Wage, something the Government has promised but so far failed to deliver.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPoverty cannot be eradicated without an appropriate level of income supports. We need a plan to increase core welfare rates towards the Minimum Essential Standard of Living. Permanent financial supports are the only thing that will mitigate income inequality for those at the bottom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Government also missed an opportunity to tackle child poverty when it ignored the Qualified Child Increase this week, having raised it by a mere \u20ac2 in the Budget. This miserly amount falls well short of what is required and is not enough to support children or families on the brink of poverty. My party had proposed an additional \u20ac7 for children under 12 and an extra \u20ac12 for teenagers, bringing the weekly amounts to \u20ac47 and \u20ac60 per week respectively.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe latest poverty figures are proof positive that the Government\u2019s response to the cost-of-living crisis is just a sticking plaster solution that will result in increased levels of poverty and deprivation in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>February 23, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are now more than 671,000 people living in poverty \u2013 over 188,000 of them children The sharp rise in the number of people living in poverty in Ireland highlights the increasing level of income inequality in this country, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. The at risk of poverty rate, as measured by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,7,148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gary-gannon","category-press-release","category-social-welfare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are now more than 671,000 people living in poverty \u2013 over 188,000 of them children The sharp rise in the number of people living in poverty in Ireland highlights the increasing level of income inequality in this country, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. The at risk of poverty rate, as measured by [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-23T16:28:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gannon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\"},\"headline\":\"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-23T16:28:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":434,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Gannon.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Gary Gannon\",\"Press Release\",\"Social Welfare\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/\",\"name\":\"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels - Social Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Gannon.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-23T16:28:13+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Gannon.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Gannon.jpg\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Gary Gannon TD\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"name\":\"Social Democrats\",\"description\":\"Change Ireland for the better\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Social Democrats\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"width\":846,\"height\":358,\"caption\":\"The Social Democrats\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/socialdemocratsireland\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/SocDems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\",\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/ga\\\/author\\\/zoo-admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels - Social Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/","og_locale":"ga_IE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels - Social Democrats","og_description":"There are now more than 671,000 people living in poverty \u2013 over 188,000 of them children The sharp rise in the number of people living in poverty in Ireland highlights the increasing level of income inequality in this country, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. The at risk of poverty rate, as measured by [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/","og_site_name":"Social Democrats","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","article_published_time":"2023-02-23T16:28:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gannon.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ZOO Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SocDems","twitter_site":"@SocDems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ZOO Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/"},"author":{"name":"ZOO Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960"},"headline":"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels","datePublished":"2023-02-23T16:28:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/"},"wordCount":434,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gannon.jpg","articleSection":["Gary Gannon","Press Release","Social Welfare"],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/","name":"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels - Social Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gannon.jpg","datePublished":"2023-02-23T16:28:13+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ga-IE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gannon.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gannon.jpg","width":1080,"height":1080,"caption":"Gary Gannon TD"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-act-urgently-to-reduce-poverty-levels\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Government must act urgently to reduce poverty levels"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","name":"Social Democrats","description":"Change Ireland for the better","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization","name":"The Social Democrats","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","width":846,"height":358,"caption":"The Social Democrats"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","https:\/\/x.com\/SocDems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960","name":"ZOO Admin","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/author\/zoo-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}