Social Inclusion Monitor 2012

The Monitor is the official statement on progress towards meeting the national social target for poverty reduction and supporting indicators. It arises from a Government commitment to strengthen implementation of the target by reporting in a regular, timely and accessible manner. It also reports on the new child poverty sub-target, announced by Government in April 2014. This is the second edition of the Monitor, and is primarily based on the findings of the 2012 Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), published in April 2014.

There are four elements to the Monitor:

• the national social target for poverty reduction, including the newly adopted child poverty sub-target (the child-specific social target) and the Irish contribution to the Europe 2020 poverty target;
• supporting indicators which capture key dimensions of poverty that underpin progress towards the target;
• contextual indicators relating to life-cycle and vulnerable groups, as well as specific policy dimensions of poverty (e.g. food poverty, financial inclusion); and
• spatial indicators which show the distribution of poverty by region and location.

The Monitor also reports on new research methodologies for enhancing our understanding of poverty at a household level and due to the economic crisis.