Thank you very much, Chair.
My colleague Bevin Cody is with me, as you mentioned earlier. Bevin will join in the question and answer session later on.
First of all, I'd like to say that I join with Gerry and Tim in welcoming this opportunity to talk to you. In fact, I had the privilege of visiting the building you're in about three years ago and doing a tour of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, so I'm delighted with this opportunity.
I'm just going to deal with two issues. First of all, I'll tell you a bit about what Combat Poverty does, what our role is, and then I'll pick up on what Gerry mentioned earlier around the European context and where the system that Gerry and Tim have outlined fits into the European context.
To start, the Combat Poverty Agency is a state agency. It was set up by statute in 1986, so we're over 20 years old. Within the European Union it's a fairly unique organization; there isn't an organization in any of the other member states that would have a similar role set up by statute.
Under the act setting us up, we have four key functions: the first is to give policy advice to the minister and to the government on social and economic planning in relation to poverty; the second is to undertake and evaluate programs and actions aimed at overcoming poverty; the third is to promote, commission, and undertake research into the nature, causes, and extent of poverty; and the fourth is to promote a greater understanding of poverty through communications and public education.
These functions would include working with the NGOs and the community and voluntary sector in Ireland and also promoting the use of community development as a way of overcoming poverty.
We're required by the act to draw up a strategic plan every three years--in fact, we're in the process of doing that at the moment--and these plans should reflect the national policy framework that's in existence at the time of their drafting. For example, as was outlined earlier, the strategic plan for the next three years that we're drafting at the moment would very much focus on the life cycle approach: looking at children, people of working age, older people, people with disabilities, and communities. That's in place at the moment and is part of the strategy we're using in Ireland.
Our work at the moment involves a number of these areas. For example, we've done quite a bit of work on the whole issue of child poverty, which is quite a major problem in Ireland. Linked to that, of course, is the problem of lone parents, and it would be in these two categories or groups that we would find the highest levels of poverty.
Another key issue we've been investigating is older people, and indeed the impact of government action is very well founded in the results of looking at older people, because through the budgetary process over the last number of years there has been a focus on dealing with poverty among older people and people living on pensions, and we have seen a reduction in the number of older people living in poverty.
Two other areas that we're focused on in Combat Poverty at the moment are around financial exclusion, meaning that people can't access bank accounts and can't access credit; consequently, they have difficulty in finding employment because they need a bank account, and there's a catch-22 situation. We're working with the financial institutions here, the financial regulator, and the ministry of finance on how to tackle that.
Finally, a new issue that is raising its head over the last number of years, not just in Ireland but in Europe, is around low-income workers and consequently low-income families. We are involved in doing research on that and looking at it as an issue that needs to be addressed at a national level.
Our work also involves working with the local authorities, because rolling out a lot of the strategy means actions and programs at the local level. So we work very closely with the local authorities and with the health services, as well as undertaking funding and research on poverty trends and blue-sky studies to identify new or emerging forms of poverty.
Tim talked about the budgetary process a few minutes ago. Indeed, one of the key requirements that we have each year is to make a budget submission to the various departments on what we see needing to be done in the state budget each year. Working with Tim and his colleagues in the Economic and Social Research Institute, we also analyze the budget using the models that Tim has described.
The second issue I'd like to draw your attention to is the European context in which all of this fits. Back in 1997, just over 10 years ago, under the Amsterdam treaty, the European Union, funded by and working with the European Commission, set up an employment strategy to try to tackle the high levels of unemployment in the European Union. Following on from that, the Lisbon strategy was adopted at a meeting of the heads of government on the economic and social direction of the European Union in Lisbon in early 2000. That strategy included tackling poverty and social exclusion. In trying to push this agenda forward, the European Commission issues guidelines every year for the member states to measure their actions in tackling poverty and social exclusion. Every two years, the member states are required to submit to the commission a national report on social inclusion, pensions, and social protection, and then a joint report is adopted by the heads of government at their spring meeting each year.
Part of this process is what's called the soft law approach. We have the open method of coordination in which you have peer reviews where experts from member states look at the approaches taken in other member states and give their views and feedback on how member states are progressing with their particular objectives under the guidelines. There are a number of transnational actions and programs funded by the European Commission. Part of all of this is the yearly survey that is carried out under the guidance of Eurobarometer, called the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions, which gives us the data by which to measure the progress we're making.
Finally, I would say that today is quite an interesting day for you to come to us in Ireland, because today we're voting on the Lisbon treaty, and we're the only country to do so, as the other 26 countries are adopting the treaty through a parliamentary process. It's interesting that for the first time in a EU treaty, social exclusion is enshrined as an objective. Article 3 of the treaty says that the Union
shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child.
If the treaty is passed by the end of this year, that will be enshrined in the new European Union treaties. The treaty also commits the EU to the eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights in a world-wide approach. And the treaty allows for the establishment of an advisory social protection committee with a mandate to promote cooperation between the member states, and with the European Commission, on social protection policies.
The Lisbon treaty, which hopefully will be passed in Ireland today and will be adopted by the end of this year, will also enshrine the battle to tackle poverty and social exclusion at a European level into the fundamental laws of the union.