Poverty rife despite nation’s prosperity

IRELAND is one of the richest countries in Europe but has one of the worst poverty rates and spends less on health, education and its poorest citizens than most of its fellow European Union (EU) members, new figures yesterday revealed.

Around 800,000 people in Ireland are classed as at risk of poverty while 280,000 of these are classed as living in consistent poverty, a Central Statistics Office (CSO) report called Measuring Ireland’s Progress found.

Ireland has one of the highest rates of “at-risk poverty” among the 27 countries in the EU.