Press release
Ministers Humphreys and O’Brien publish first Progress Report of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Social Inclusion, Joe O’Brien TD, have today published the first Progress Report of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025.
The five year Roadmap is a key commitment in the Programme for Government and sets out a clear path for reducing poverty and increasing social inclusion.
The report, approved by Cabinet yesterday, sets out the progress made in achieving the Roadmap’s goals.
Several of the commitments in the Roadmap have been already delivered by the Government as part of the previous two Budgets.
These include the introduction of additional Parent’s Leave and Parent’s Benefit; the extension of the Hot School Meals Programme; increases to the Qualified Child Payment and increases to the core social welfare rates, which came into effect on January 1st, 2022.
Commenting today, Minister Humphreys said:
“The publication of this report highlights the Government’s commitment to the implementation of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion.
“The Roadmap’s ambition to reduce consistent poverty in Ireland is a priority across Government and is supported by the Programme for Government.
“This report recognises some of the progress that we are making in terms of tackling poverty and increasing social inclusion.
“For example, it highlights measures that we introduced in the last two budgets, which were designed to support families and vulnerable citizens.
“This includes, for example, the decision to increase the rate of payment for qualified children, which is proven to reduce poverty.”
Welcoming this publication, Minister O’Brien said:
“I am pleased to publish the first report on the progress of the ‘Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025.
“The key commitment of the Roadmap; reducing consistent poverty to 2% or less, is a priority for me as minister with responsibility for implementing the Roadmap, and for everyone tasked with delivering initiatives to achieve that commitment.
“Work will continue across Government throughout 2022 in progressing and delivering on the key commitments of the Roadmap.”
Work continued throughout 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic on the delivery of commitments, with a number of them being fully achieved or achieved with delivery continuing, and many others in progress. The delivery of a limited number of commitments is behind schedule, due to the impact of COVID-19 and the need to redeploy staff to frontline services in some areas. Delivery of all commitments remains a Government priority in 2022.
Minister O’Brien added:
“These difficult times have further highlighted the importance of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion and the need for a continued focus on supports and services to reduce poverty levels in Ireland. I am pleased to see that despite the constraints placed on Government Departments over the past 21 months progress on achieving Roadmap targets have remained a priority.”
The report and Report Card are available here.
ENDS
The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025: Ambition, Goals, Commitments was approved by Government and published in January 2020. This is the first report on progress towards the achievement of the Roadmap goals. The primary ambition of the Roadmap is to “reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU.” The Roadmap translates this ambition into 7 Goals underpinned by 66 unique commitments (actions) that will be taken to help deliver these goals.
By the end of September 2021:
Commitments that have been delivered over the first 21 months of the Roadmap include:
1. An increase of €10 per week to the Working Family Payment income threshold for all family sizes;
2. Increases in the rates of Increase for a Qualified Child to €40 per week for children under 12 and €48 per week for children 12 years and older;
3. An increase of €5 per week on the maximum rate of all Working Age payments, including Carer’s Allowance, Disability Allowance, One Parent Family Payments and Jobseekers Transition Payments, with proportional increases for reduced rates and Qualified Adult rates; and
4. An increase of €10 to the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance payment for both older and younger children.
1. The Further Education and Training (FET) Strategy 2020-2024 "Transforming Learning" in July 2020;
2. National Volunteering Strategy 2021-2025 in December 2020;
3. Our Rural Future - the Rural Development policy 2021-2025 in March 2021;
4. Pathways to Work Strategy 2021-2025 in July 2021;
5. Adult Literacy for Life: 10–year Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy in September 2021; and
6. ‘Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland’ in September 2021.