Celtic Tiger - Toothless
In their annual Socio-Economic Review for 2008, the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) have found that 720,000 people in the Twenty-Six Counties still live in households with incomes well below the poverty line.
The report highlights the fact that 17 per cent of the population within the Twenty-Six Counties have incomes below the standard poverty line recognised by the European Commission and the United Nations. In 2008 this line is equivalent to €11,400 for a single person and to €26,400 for a household of 4.
50% of all households at risk are headed by a person outside the labour force, which would include the most vulnerable of society including the elderly, people living with disabilities, the ill and those in caring roles that prevent them from gaining employment.
A major troubling finding of the report shows that more than 20 per cent of all children in the Twenty-Six Counties are at risk of poverty.
What is most worrying is the fact that almost 30 per cent of all households at risk of poverty are headed by a person in employment. CORI Justice has described these as the ‘working poor’ and went on to state that,
“The failure by the Government to address the ‘working poor issue’ is a serious indictment of how the resources available throughout the Celtic Tiger years were used.”
Brian Leeson - Éirígí chairperson - commented on the findings, saying that they were an indictment on a Twenty-Six county administration, which this very week cynically reaffirmed its commitment to the ideals of 1916.
“Those in the echelons of power in our country would have us believe that we live in an era of unparalleled prosperity, however this report and the daily grind that most of us face tells a different story.
“How in on of the richest states in Europe can a quarter of a million of our citizens be living in poverty? How can the most vulnerable in our country, including children and elderly people, be left on the scrap heap whilst multinational corporations declare ridiculous profits off the back of Irish labour every year?
“Equally, why do working families have to struggle in perpetual fear of debt when there is clearly enough wealth to benefit each and every Irish citizen?
“We have under resourced public services all in lieu of being privatised and this week our people will have to take to the streets again to demand adequate health care.
“These are common place issues in modern Ireland and serve as stark exposé of a government that does not care, of a system that does not deliver and of the need for radical change.
“In this, the Easter week, when all and sundry declared their loyalty to the ethos and ideals of 1916, the children of the nation remain treated unequally and the future of the nation is not provided for.
We in Éirígí will continue to campaign with others for both national and economic liberation and will remember well the maxim of James Connolly whom we commemorate this week –
“If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organisation of the Socialist Republic your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”