‘Until the issue of the social contract is taken seriously, we are going to see the persistence of the poverty, the homelessness, the exclusion’

We have a Government “not too interested in listening”, which is pursuing policies likely to increase poverty and inequality, and which “fails to understand” the scale of the housing crisis. So says Dr Seán Healy – priest, economist and thorn in successive governments’ sides – as he steps back from public life.

Some 14 years after co-founding the independent think-tank, Social Justice Ireland (SJI), he and Sr Brigid Reynolds are retiring this weekend. While she has been the charity’s company secretary, he has been its director and outspoken critic of Governments failing the most marginalised.

Aged 77, he needs to “slow down” having been “working flat out”. It has become more difficult, he says, to get traction for ideas on social justice in the media and to get engagement with policymakers.

“The work has become more demanding in recent years than it was, partly because we have a Government that isn’t interested too much in listening,” he says. “Maybe some members of the Cabinet are interested, but generally with this Government, there has been a strong resistance to engaging with different voices. They do the box-ticking but they don’t engage meaningfully.

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Even back when we were producing massive numbers of houses [for the private market], SJI was arguing that the number of social houses was inadequate, that this was going to come home to roost. And now it is home to roost

—  Seán Healy

“When Government says: ‘We will consult you’, now it means: ‘We will invite you to a meeting, you can say whatever. We will not engage with you. We will make a speech that does not engage with what you said, written earlier.’”

“Government would benefit enormously from having some listening capacity,” he says. Failure to listen led to the massive anti-water charges movement from 2014 and the housing crisis, which, he says, had been “predictable ... many moons ago”.

“Even back when we were producing massive numbers of houses [for the private market], SJI was arguing that the number of social houses was inadequate, that this was going to come home to roost. And now it is home to roost. But instead of recognising a policy mistake of substance was made, [the mistake] continues to be ignored.”

It’s a far-cry from the level of engagement of the early 2000s, he says, typified by the invitation in August 2004 from then Fianna Fáil Government under then taoiseach Bertie Ahern, to address the party at its “think-in” in Inchydoney, west Cork. “The party was doing poorly. It had lost two by-elections. It had been slaughtered in local elections. I was asked to go, so I went.

“I said, ‘If you are serious about tackling social exclusion, here are the things you must do. The first was to get social welfare up to 30 per cent of average industrial earnings, as a benchmark’. Big increases in core payments were delivered over the following three budgets – €14, €17 and €20. It wasn’t small change.”

Grinding poverty

The most grinding form of poverty, known as consistent poverty, fell from 7 per cent in 2005 to 4.2 per cent by 2008. It currently stands at 5.3 per cent with 18 per cent of people experiencing “enforced deprivation” according to the Central Statistics Office. In a “thriving” and “wealthy” economy, with full employment, this represents a failure of the social contract, says Healy.

Forty years ago, ordinary people could expect a ‘floor’ of basic protections – a roof over their heads and a job that met the basic cost of living. That’s gone

—  Seán Healy

He doesn’t believe this Government has the same interest shown in 2004 in tackling inequality, or “eliminating” poverty, Current policy direction, based largely on trickle-down economics, will make things even worse, he says.

A global “failure to listen” by governments and elites, stems from the “tearing up” of the social contract in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, he argues. “Forty years ago, ordinary people could expect a ‘floor’ of basic protections – a roof over their heads and a job that met the basic cost of living,” he says. “That’s gone.”

A new social contract is crucial for Ireland to succeed. It must have five elements, he continues: a thriving economy, decent social services, just and fair taxation, real participation and sustainability.

“All five must happen simultaneously,” he stresses. “But always the first thing, says Government, is the thriving economy ... Everything else will follow, is what they tell you.” Such ‘trickle down’ approaches are doomed to fail, he continues. “We always crash when we do that. Until such time as the issue of the social contract is taken seriously, we are going to see the persistence of the poverty, the homelessness, the exclusion... In fact it’s going to get worse.”

Asked where his lifelong zeal for social justice comes from, he says it was “always there” in his family home in Cork city. He was born the eldest of eight in 1946 – he had four brothers and three sisters. Two brothers have died.

His father had precarious part-time jobs until about 1951, when he got secure work as a freight lorry driver with CIÉ. He was a trade unionist and vice-chairman of the local union branch. That striving for fairness and justice “seeps through” a family, says Healy. Near their home in Blackrock was the Society of African Missions, which he joined and with whom he worked for 10 years in northern Nigeria.

“There was incredible poverty. It was a totally different world. I was two years there and I was a parish priest in a parish of 2,000 square miles, 47 churches.

Universal Basic Income

“The thing that struck me profoundly was that everybody’s work in the society was respected, though most were not in a job. Everybody had a role that was important. I realised here only one type of work was respected and that was paid employment... What about care and carers?” he wondered.

[ Co-founders of Social Justice Ireland to retire ]

[ Universal basic income would cost up to €50bn a year, ESRI study finds ]

“It was one of the issues that drove me to the concept of a universal basic income (UBI). In a world where there is not great respect for care work it would put a basic income, of say €220 a week, into everybody’s pocket. It’s doable, viable and can be done.”

If we are ever going to come to grips with the reality of groups like carers, they will have to be properly funded. We will have to find a way and something like a basic income will happen

—  Seán Healy

It “angered” him that the Commission on Welfare and Taxation earlier this year recommended against a UBI. He says the analysis on which it based its rejection was “fundamentally flawed” and contained errors. He believes the Department of Finance, which provided secretariat support to the commission, was “ideologically” against a UBI from the outset. “It is clear the civil servants were against it and they got their opportunity to kill it off,” he says.

The commission, which was independent of Government, has since disbanded. A department spokesman said officials had no role in its work apart from to “provide secretariat support to assist its work”. The spokesman added: “It wouldn’t be appropriate to respond to these comments”.

Having argued for a UBI since the 1980s, he believes it will be introduced eventually. “If we are ever going to come to grips with the reality of groups like carers, they will have to be properly funded. We will have to find a way and something like a basic income will happen.”

[ FG and FF failed to make submissions to State commission on tax and welfare ]

SJI was founded in 2009, to break with the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) in the wake of the devastating Ryan Report into abuse of children by religious. Cori had been the voice of the Catholic religious on social justice issues but, says Healy, its credibility was “shot to pieces”.

“We decided to set up a completely independent organisation.”

SJI now has about 300 member organisations including NGOs and university departments. It provides robust social policy analysis and is perhaps best known among many media for its authoritative annual post-Budget analysis – written through the night and published by 10am the morning after. Its new chief executive, John McGeady, takes over on Monday.

‘New social contract’

Asked whether despair or optimism dominates as he winds down, Healy says he is “hopeful”. “A lot of good people are doing an awful lot of work trying to change the direction that current policy is taking in Ireland. We need a new social contract and to do that we need to have everyone around the table talking. We need social dialogue.”

Responding to his criticisms, a spokesman for the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wished Healy the “very best” for his retirement.

“He has made an important and valuable contribution to public policy. It has made a difference. The Taoiseach has engaged with Fr Healy on many occasions down the years ranging from correspondence to many meetings in person.

“The main proposal Fr Healy has pressed with the Taoiseach is a move to refundable tax credits. This was examined by the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, which recommended against it for good reasons.

“While figures vary from year to year, the percentage of people experiencing consistent poverty and deprivation has fallen significantly in the past ten years and income inequality has narrowed. This is due in large part to Government policy, including the achievement of full employment, minimum wage increases above the rate of inflation, the working family payment, welfare and pension increases and the reductions in the cost of healthcare and childcare. This work continues.”