Briefing on general Election 2002

2002 April 30: General Election 2002 Briefing Document issued by CORI Jusstice Commission. Download Pdf

Poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability should be at the top of the General Election agenda

There is a major paradox at the heart of Irish development. Despite the unprecedented economic growth of the Irish economy in recent years and its accompanying prosperity there has been a marked failure to address adequately the issues of poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability.

While Ireland now has a per capita income well above the EU average its infrastructure and social provision are far below the EU level. At the same time Ireland's tax-take is far below the EU average and this is seen by many as a virtue to be protected at all costs.

This combination of circumstances raises major questions concerning Ireland's future.

Do Irish people want to see poverty and social exclusion eliminated?
Do Irish people want to see the inequalities and deep divisions in Irish society tackled?
Should Ireland have an EU level of infrastructure and social provision?
If the answers to any of these questions is yes, then how are the changes to be financed?
If the answers to the questions are no, then is Ireland satisfied to continue with levels of infrastructure and social provision well below the EU average and live with the lower quality of life that accompanies such lower levels of provision?

These are the key questions for the electorate as it decides how to vote in Election 2002.

Key Question for Election 2002 : What kind of Ireland do we want to see develop in the years ahead?

There have been many positive developments to record in recent years. Economic growth has been at unprecedented levels. Despite the recent slowdown it is still higher than most EU and OECD countries. The numbers employed have grown dramatically. There has been a substantial fall in the numbers unemployed. The rate of long-term unemployment is much lower today than it was a decade ago.

In recent years, however, Ireland has had prosperity without fairness. While the wealth of the nation has grown dramatically, there have been many failures. We list only a few:

The proportion of the population with incomes below the poverty line (about €155 a week for a single person in 2002) has grown to a point where one in every five people is now living in poverty.
The proportion of households below the same poverty line has also grown.
The gap between the better off and the poor has widened dramatically.
There is growing social polarisation between these two parts of society.

This situation has been exacerbated by most of the recent Budgets which saw those who were already better off gaining most when the available resources were allocated.

Ireland can do better than this

Boston or Berlin?

There has been a growing debate about the model of society that Irish people wish to see evolve. This has been encapsulated in the rather misleading phrase 'Boston or Berlin' which has been used to contrast the 'European' model with the 'American' model. It could be argued that Ireland has been moving towards the American model of socio-economic development which is characterised by low taxation, more emphasis on the responsibilities of individuals, less social provision and growing inequality.

We now have a situation where the share of GNP going on wages is much lower than it was a decade ago. At the same time the share going on profits is markedly higher. Likewise, the share of GNP going on social welfare payments is markedly lower than it was before the advent of the economic boom. While this in part is a consequence of the decline in the numbers unemployed, it is also a consequence of the failure to use the available resources to raise the standard of living of Ireland's poorest people so as to bring them above the relative income poverty line. Despite claims to the contrary the reality is that Ireland's rate of relative income poverty has risen during the boom years and is one of the highest in the EU

A reversal of recent trends in these areas seems more than desirable if Ireland is to have a fair distribution of its new resources. A major challenge facing political parties and the political process generally is to address this key issue of the lack of fairness in the distribution of the fruits of economic growth. If a much higher priority is not given to social spending than has been the case heretofore then the unfairness of the present situation will deepen, the gaps in society will widen even further and we will be left with a deeply divided two-tier society.

Fairness does not emerge spontaneously or automatically. It has to be worked for and developed in concrete policy initiatives rooted in a strategy that acknowledges that fairness is a desired outcome. That is one reason why this general election is so important.

Sustainability

Sustainability is the other critically important issue that needs to be highlighted in this General Election. Any scenario of the future being proposed must be socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. Far too little attention has been given to all of these three aspects of sustainability. In overall terms there has been too great a focus on economic growth with too little attention being paid to economic sustainability. The social and environmental components of sustainability have received even less attention.

The challenge during this General Election is to put poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability on the General Election agenda.

Election 2002 The Context

Ireland has never had the resources currently available to build a future with a place for all.
There are more people living in relative income poverty (i.e. with less than €155 per week per adult equivalent) today than there were ten years ago.
While the depth of some people's poverty has been reduced in recent years it has been done at the expense of the less poor rather than the well off.
Ireland has a worse rich/poor gap than any other EU country.
At the same time Ireland gives a lower proportion of GNP on social welfare than any other EU country. Ireland's contribution is 17.5% of GDP compared to an EU average of 28.2%.
Ireland is a low-tax country when compared with other EU member states. Ireland takes 34.1% of GDP on taxes and social contributions compared to an EU average of 42.6%.
The number of households on waiting lists for housing has risen to almost 50,000 in 2002. In 2000 (the last year for which numbers are available) the number of social housing units provided was 3,155. This was a reduction on the out-turn for the previous year.
Access to private housing is gone beyond the capacity of couples with two average industrial salaries.
There are more than 5,000 people homeless.
According to the OECD 26% of young people in Ireland have no useful qualification beyond junior level.
Almost one in five 17-year olds are not in full-time education.
There are more than 24,000 people on public hospital waiting lists.
The total number of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland is low (about 13,500) when compared to the number of emigrants (about 35,000) who left Ireland annually just a decade ago.
Rural poverty and environmental decline are largely ignored

Questions to ask canvassers when they ask for your vote

Canvassers will come asking for your vote during the course of this General Election campaign. In the following pages we suggest a range of questions you might ask them on topics related to poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability. We also provide some information on why this particular question is important. For a much more detailed treatment of all of these issues you can check the CORI Justice Commission's socio-economic review An Agenda for Fairness which contains detailed analysis and proposals under these and many other headings that may be of interest.

Issue	Questions to ask
Income	Will your party benchmark the lowest social welfare payment at 30 per cent of average industrial earnings by 2007? If poverty is ever to be eliminated people must have enough income to live life with dignity. Almost 70 per cent of those with incomes below the poverty line (about €155 a week for single people in 2002) are living in households where the head of the household is not in the labour force. They are ill or retired or have a disability or they are "on home duties". Consequently, they depend on their social welfare payments-which are too low. The National Anti-Poverty Strategy has a target that the lowest social welfare payment will reach 30 per cent of gross average industrial earnings by 2007. A commitment from political parties to reach that benchmark by 2007 is very important. It would lift almost everyone in these categories out of income poverty.
Basic Income	Will your party be prepared to examine the Basic Income system in the context of developing a tax and welfare system more appropriate to the 21st century? Basic Income is a much fairer system than what is currently in place. The present tax and welfare systems were very appropriate for the 20th century but a new system more appropriate for the present century is required. Such a system should treat men and women equally; should not favour two-income households over those with one income; should promote equity and ensure that everyone receives at least the poverty level of income; and it should reward types of work in the social economy that the market economy often ignores such as household work, caring work, etc. Basic Income is such a system. It should be promoted and introduced.
Healthcare	Will your party change the healthcare system so that access to all healthcare will be on the basis of need and not on the basis of capacity to pay? There has been a substantial increase in the Budget allocation for healthcare in recent years. Major problems persist, however. Even if the National Healthcare Strategy is fully implemented we will still be left with a two-tier system. The persistence of the two-tier system will mean that the link between poverty and ill health will persist into the future. The system needs fundamental reform. Access to healthcare provision should be on the basis of need and should not depend on a person's capacity to pay.
Housing and Accommodation	Will your party give priority to substantially increasing the supply of social housing to ensure that by 2007 nobody is on a waiting list for longer than six months? Social housing is required by those whose resources are insufficient to provide them with access to suitable and adequate accommodation on the open market. These needs are met through local authority housing and voluntary housing schemes as well as through rental subsidy provided to the private rental sector. There are close to 50,000 households on waiting lists. Yet the total number of houses provided to meet this need in 2000 was 4,158. This was substantially less than what had been provided in the previous year. (2000 is the last year for which these statistics are available.) Ireland is facing an accommodation crisis. The fact that so many people do not have appropriate accommodation is a major indictment of the use to which resources were put in recent years.
Education	Will your party discriminate positively in favour of those who are disadvantaged at present within the education system? The inequalities in the education system are starkly portrayed in the under-representation of poorer socio-economic groups at third level. However, this severe under-representation at third level is strongly linked to failures earlier in the education system and to problems in the system as a whole. While there are a number of programmes and initiatives to tackle educational disadvantage, many of these initiatives simply involve providing additional resources for disadvantaged schools. This does not amount to positive discrimination, but simply results in a closing of the gap in terms of resources between schools in disadvantaged areas and others. Early school leaving persists. Inequalities in education can ultimately be tackled only by a sustained effort to address those features of the education system, as a whole, which help to create and sustain the problem of educational disadvantage.
Cultural Respect	Will your party take positive action to correct the injustices currently being experienced by minority groups such as asylum seekers and refugees? Every minority group has a right to have its culture respected and to ensure that it is not excluded because of its minority status. In Ireland at present there are a range of minority groups who are experiencing serious injustice. Among these we point to asylum seekers and to Travellers. Asylum seekers are barred from taking up paid employment even after the Government has failed to process their applications within its own target of six months. They are then blamed for "being a burden on the State". The right to work of all asylum seekers should be recognised if their applications are at least six months old. Travellers continue to experience major exclusion seven years after the Task Force Report on the Travelling Community was published. The failure to make any substantial progress on implementing the Task Force's recommendations can only be described as pathetic.
Work	Is your party prepared to take positive steps to recognise the value of unpaid work? The current labour-market situation raises major questions concerning assumptions underpinning culture and policy making in this area. One such assumption concerns the priority given to paid employment over other forms of work. Most people recognise that a person can work very hard even though they do not have a job. Much of the work done in the home and in the community fits under this heading. The substantial value of this unpaid work needs to be recognised and incorporated into policy making. CORI Justice Commission's support for the introduction of a basic income system comes, in part, from a belief that all work should be recognised and supported.
Measuring Progress	Is your party prepared to adopt the NESC's list of National Progress Indicators and make them central to your policy development? Traditional measures of development (such as GNP), based on economic growth and development are inadequate measures of progress. This traditional measurement ignores the interaction between economic development, the availability and management of environmental resources to support this, and social development. A successful and sustainable society and economy is characterised not only by rising incomes but also by balance in personal, family and work life, in the distribution of the economic gains across society and between successive generations, and in the sustainable use of those natural resources that are the ultimate means for those gains. The National Economic and Social Council (NESC) recently published an agreed listing of National Progress Indicators. These should become central to Government policy development in the years ahead.
Environment	Is your party prepared to make systematic conservation of resources and the environment a central part of policy development? The environment is finite and must be conserved. This is important for the present as well as future generations. Despite much rhetoric, enough is not being done to make it a central component of government policy development. Environmental sustainability is crucial to sustainable development. It requires that Government give priority to the systematic conservation of resources and environment.
Third World Debt	Is your party prepared to support the international campaign for the liberation of the poorest nations from the burden of the backlog of un-payable debt? For every €1 given in aid by rich countries, poor countries pay back nearly €4 in debt repayments. Africa alone spends four times more on interest on its loans than on healthcare. The present situation sees the resources of the poor south being transferred to the rich north of the world. This situation is unjust and unsustainable. The Irish Government should use all its influence in international forums to eliminate 3rd World debt.

Choosing a Fairer Future

Ireland has been living through its greatest prosperity ever. The dramatic rise in the numbers employed, the fall in the numbers unemployed and the rising average per capita income levels have seen the emergence of an Ireland that is dramatically different from what it was a decade ago.

At the same time the numbers living in poverty have continued to grow, divisions in society have deepened, the rich/poor gap has widened and the number of households waiting for appropriate accommodation has risen dramatically.

As well as this, Ireland's infrastructure and social provision are far below the EU average despite the fact that our average per capita income is well above the EU average.

Ireland's tax-take is far below the EU average. If Ireland's infrastructure and social provision is to reach EU average levels it must be financed and the sources of this financing must be identified.

This is a moment for making choices. The outcome of the general election of 2002 will produce a Government that will have enormous resources at its disposal. CORI Justice Commission believes these resources should be used to build a fairer future. Our socio-economic review An Agenda for Fairness: Economic Development, Social Equity and Sustainability contains a detailed outline of what needs to be done to produce such a fairer society. The record on how the rapidly growing economic resources of the past decade were used leaves a great deal to be desired. Far less than was possible has been done in the areas of poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability. The challenge to any incoming Government will be to put these issues at the top of its agenda in the years immediately ahead.

Exercise your right to vote

Many people feel it's a waste of time to vote. They claim decisions are made without real consultation and that their major interests are not given real consideration by politicians.

It is crucial for democracy that people exercise their right to vote. The General Election gives everyone an opportunity to influence the shape of the next Government.

Use your influence

VOTE

The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness contains a commitment to spend €1.3 million on a voter education programme aimed principally at young people and those living in poorer areas. In the past two years, as this general election approached, Government refused to honour this commitment. Given the fact that so many people do not vote, this failure is regrettable.

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