Fresh Definition Of Development Needed
Revelations in the past week that tens of thousands of children in the Six Counties are living in poverty have thrown into stark contrast the prosperity being experienced by some in our society.
According to a report released by the Six County executive, more than 100,000 young Irish citizens in British occupied Ireland experience poverty in their everyday lives, while around 44,000 of these children live in “severe poverty”.
These figures mean one in four children in the Six Counties are living in poverty.
While the Six County executive’s Programme for Government contains a commitment to eliminate child poverty by 2020, practical measures such as under-funding public housing schemes and freezing rates on businesses can only exacerbate the unequal distribution of resources and wealth in the state.
The figures for the Twenty-Six Counties make for even more depressing reading.
According to a European Union report published in November last year, one-third of those living in consistent poverty in the Twenty-Six Counties are aged 14 or under.
The report, which contains figures collated between December 2005 and December 2006, went on to detail that:
The consistent poverty rate for persons in lone parent households increased from 27.2 per cent in 2005 to 32.5 per cent;
The amount of children in consistent poverty rose from 10.2 per cent in 2005 to 11.1 per cent;
Almost two-thirds of citizens in consistent poverty live in households with children;
The Twenty-Six Counties has the joint third highest risk of poverty rate in the EU – sitting at 20 per cent.
In an analysis of poverty that could be applied to the whole country, the Combat Poverty Agency in the Twenty-Six Counties state that,
“Poverty for children means that they are excluded from doing things that are considered normal in society because of inadequate income in the household. Child poverty has a long-term effect. It makes a difference to children’s health, their educational achievement, how long they will live, how well they develop physically and mentally, what kinds of jobs they get, as well as on their overall life opportunities.
“The longer a child is poor, the greater the deprivation they will suffer in later life. According to studies by UNICEF, children from poor households are much more likely to do poorly in school, to become teenage parents, to spend time in prison and to have difficulty finding or keeping good jobs.”
Éirígí spokesperson Brian Leeson said the figures showed that Ireland needed a radical redefinition of how we measure social and economic growth and development.
“For the last decade and more, the citizens of this country, in both states, have been told time and again that they’ve never had it so good, that prosperity will now be our permanent state of existence.
“But, as these reports have revealed, for a massive percentage of our population the prosperity never arrived in the first place. The wealth passed them by as it was funnelled into the bank accounts of rich native business people and fly-by-night ‘investors’
“It is a crime of the most inexcusable nature that our children are among those who have been left out of this circle of wealth. It is a crime that while multinational companies are welcomed with open arms to exploit our workforce in lieu of a cheaper pool of labour, Irish children are forced to take the scraps off the overloaded table.
“Both the Dublin and London governments are to blame for this state of affairs. They and, more recently, Britain’s Stormont administrators are conniving at very real levels of deprivation in order not to rock the economic boat for the already rich.”
Brian continued, “The alternative to this disgraceful situation is clear. We need to take a fresh look at what having a prosperous society entails.
“A prosperous society is not one that cuts taxes on businesses so they can make more money, it is not one that allows private hospitals for the rich to be built on public land while hospitals for ordinary citizens are closed, and it is not one that allows hundreds of thousands of children to languish in poverty.
“In Éirígí’s view the right of all our children to a dignified standard of living, to adequate housing, free education, free healthcare and enough food to prevent hunger are key components of a prosperous society.
“Despite what the establishment would have people believe, these components are not in place at present. If putting them into place means implementing policies that are unpopular with the wealthy, it is a small price to pay.”