THE Government's new national antipoverty strategy has been welcomed by the Combat Poverty Agency but has been described as "disappointing" by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
Following the presentation of the strategy, entitled "Sharing in Progress", in Dublin Castle yesterday, the director of the Combat Poverty Agency, Mr Hugh Frazer, said it represented a critical landmark in the development of economic and social policy in Ireland. If implemented with real energy over the next decade, the strategy had the potential to contribute to a radical transformation of Irish society.
"It is only a starting point. It doesn't contain all the answers. Implementing the strategy will require hard choices between competing interests. It will require adapting and changing existing policies and spending priorities and introducing new ones. It will mean a major shift in the priorities and culture of departments and agencies," Mr Frazer added.
However, the INOU general secretary, Mr Mike Allen, said the strategy "lacks real ambition and is a disappointing outcome for groups representing the poor who were consulted on its contents over the past two years.
"While there are new commitments in principles and values, there are none on additional expenditure to eliminate poverty. Nevertheless, the fact that we now have a framework from the Government on reducing poverty has to be welcomed," Mr Allen added.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, said social exclusion was a pervasive phenomenon and "we have already seen how the growth of the economy can leave large sections of the community untouched".
The effects of poverty and social exclusion were felt not only by the poor but by society as a whole. This was not just a matter of crime and drugtaking and the other negatives associated with disadvantage, it was more about the loss of potential, "the missing contribution" which was the consequence of social exclusion.
The new strategy was based on a relative" definition of poverty. This definition posed the question: "What is an acceptable standard of living in Irish society generally?"
By focusing on those who were consistently poor the strategy proposed to bring the resources of the State to bear on finding solutions to what was the most difficult problem facing society.
By setting achievable targets for education, income maintenance policy and improved employment, the Government would focus its efforts on those suffering social exclusion due to lack of resources, Mr Bruton added.
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, said while the economic performance of Ireland was well ahead of all other EU and OECD countries, the gap in terms of the relative level of prosperity between the haves and have nots remained stubbornly wide.
The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said despite rapid economic growth - and at least partly because of it - social divisions had widened. The gap had grown at a time when patterns of consumption for the majority had improved. Wealth, jobs and income did not spread themselves around naturally. Active intervention through well coordinated tax, welfare and employment policies were needed to achieve the redistribution and a sharing of resources to the benefit of all.