Ireland "is failing dismally" in the way it treats its most vulnerable people, Cori Justice has concluded in its annual socio-economic review. "In 2007, it is clearer than ever that Ireland is a country of growing socio-economic divides," it said.
Titled Addressing Inequality, the review found that "despite the substantial resources which have been available, Ireland's poorest people have been effectively excluded from what is required to live life with dignity."
It pointed out that almost one in five people in Ireland were at risk of poverty - ie having an income equivalent to less than €11,000 a year for a single person or €25,400 a year for a household of two adults and two children.
It found 30 per cent of those at risk of poverty were in households headed by an employed person and that more than 40 per cent of people with a disability were at risk of poverty. Half of those at risk of poverty lived in households headed by a person outside the labour force (ie an elderly person, someone with a disability or who was ill or in caring roles that prevented them from taking up a job), it said.
"At a time of growing national prosperity, it is clear that many have missed out on the boom times," said Fr Seán Healy, Cori Justice director. "Inequality is at the heart of poverty, unemployment and social exclusion which persist in Ireland despite the dramatic economic growth of recent years," he said.