THERE ARE always choices to be made. New research based on internationally agreed standards of living for individuals and households will challenge the Government to review welfare payments, services and the minimum wage, with implications for courts dealing with households in debt. Ireland has a long and shameful record in terms of social injustice.
The question is: will that pattern continue or can a just and inclusive society be built on the rubble of the past?
Previously, the official measures used to define poverty - “relative income poverty” and “consistent poverty” - were criticised as being inadequate by the ESRI, the Society of St Vincent de Paul and Barnardos because they didn’t include non-monetary indicators of deprivation. The Policy Institute at Trinity College and the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice have now used international criteria to establish a minimum standard of living for Irish individuals and families and specified the incomes required to afford it. Basic inputs included heating, bread and milk and a cooker. Living standards involved an ability to meet a person’s physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs.
The research found that unemployed families and those on low incomes don’t have enough money to achieve a basic standard of living. That has implications for Government policy arising from demands being made by the EU-IMF for a reduction in the public deficit. If politicians are serious about protecting the most vulnerable and maintaining a basic quality of care, these new standards will have to be taken into account when considering the possible knock-on effects of any further welfare cuts. The courts should also take these figures into account when ruling on what a family can afford in mortgage repayments.
A recent study ranked Ireland as the fourth most socially unjust country in the developed world. Even when special weighting for income poverty was removed, Ireland performed badly because of inadequate childhood services and generational inequality. In wealthy countries – and Ireland remains a wealthy country – poverty is not caused by fate, but by inadequate social and economic policies. If the political determination exists, social protection can complement a competitive economy, as has been shown by the Nordic countries. Inequalities within our taxation system will have to be further reduced. By 2006, tax breaks and tax incentives were costing the exchequer €11 billion a year, or 5.5 per cent of GDP, most of it going to the better off.
The definition of poverty can change over time, depending on economic circumstances and lifestyle expectations. It is an inability to attain a decent or adequate standard of living. Poverty is not based solely on income but on social participation and an ability to engage constructively with service providers.
Here in Ireland, there is cause for shame because of the skewed nature of society. Difficult political decisions will be required to alter that. This report and the minimum standards of living it sets down suggest a way forward.