780,000 people in Ireland are living in poverty, according to the latest report from Social Justice Ireland. This figure includes 250,000 children as detailed in the think-tank's National Social Monitor for winter 2018. "Ireland has a hospital bed occupancy rate of almost 95%, almost 20 percentage points above the OECD average," said Michelle Murphy, Research and Policy Analyst at Social Justice Ireland. It reports that more than 11,000 people are homeless and that almost 110,000 households are in need of social housing. “Government needs to dramatically increase the construction of social and low-cost homes," said Colette Bennett, Research and Policy Analyst at Social Justice Ireland.

Source: Evening echo December 03, 2018 00:22 UTC