The Justice Commission of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) has welcomed as "a major breakthrough on income adequacy" the 2002 review of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Father Sean Healy, director of CORI's Justice Commission, said last night that this year it will mean "an increase from €118.80 to €150 a week for a single person on the lowest social welfare rate".
In percentage terms this was an increase in excess of 26 per cent. "This is a substantial commitment and we welcome it," he said.
The increase was equivalent to 30 per cent of Gross Average Industrial Earnings (GAIE), he pointed out.
It also meant "that social welfare rates will be benchmarked to increases in average industrial wages from now on", and meant that the gap between the present level of the lowest social welfare payments and 30 per cent of the GAIE would be bridged by 2007.
While welcoming the review's aim of eliminating poverty among women the chairwoman of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI), Ms Gráinne Healy, said last night that "the Government's rejection of a target to reduce income inequalities in Ireland raises serious questions about the commitment of Government to seriously tackling women's poverty."
She said that as poverty in Ireland had decreased, women and children had been left behind.
"The failure of the Government to include a right to basic services is a cause of serious concern to the NWCI," she said.
Establishing a right to childcare, healthcare, education, employment, safety and accommodation were central to women to enable them to move out of poverty.
"The strategy is entirely devoid of a genuine gender analysis," she said.
Father Healy pointed out that Ireland had "very high levels of relative income poverty with one in every five people living in households with an income below the 50 percentage relative income poverty line".
CORI had urged an integrated approach in dealing with this. The Government "has accepted our recommendations and we welcome this target as a major breakthrough in tackling relative poverty in Ireland," he said.
He welcomed the commitment to ensure Child Benefit kept pace with increases in the lowest social welfare rates to 2007. But he was disappointed that there was no commitment to make tax credits refundable.
He also felt the review was "vague and/or very general in many areas and leaves a great deal to be decided in the course of the coming years".
There was, in particular, "a lack of clarity on the status of the Framework Document".
But he welcomed the Taoiseach's commitment, as expressed at the launch of the strategy, that the specific initiatives outlined in the Framework Document would be implemented in the course of the coming years.
He welcomed the setting up of a National Office for Social Inclusion but emphasised the importance of it being adequately resourced.
Targets in the health care area were "not as comprehensive as they should be", he said, and he commented that "even after the new Healthcare Strategy is implemented we will still be left with a two-tier healthcare system in Ireland".
Where housing was concerned he felt the targets were "not of a scale to eliminate the waiting lists that have been growing at an alarming rate in recent years".
And he was "very disappointed that the Government rejected the proposal to recognise the right to work of asylum seekers".
Where the Government failed to meet its own stated objective of processing asylum applications in six months the right of work should be granted to asylum seekers, he said.
