by Alan Jacques
“IRELAND is a more unequal, divided and fractured country” than it was five years ago.
And this, according to Fianna Fáil Social Protection spokesperson and Limerick TD, Willie O’Dea, “is not by accident but by design”.
The local politician, who recently assessed the Government’s record on inequality at a conference hosted by Social Justice Ireland in Dublin, is adamant that other choices were possible.
“This Government targeted those who had the least to give. It is a simple and undeniable fact that every single Budget introduced by this Government has been regressive, in that those who had the least to give lost the most,” said Deputy O’Dea.
The cumulative impact of their measures, he maintains, has created real hardship for a large proportion of Irish society. As a result, O’Dea is of the view that we now have a two-tier recovery that is building towards a two-tier society
“The Deprivation rate has doubled since 2008 from 13.7 per cent to 29 per cent while the number of people in consistent poverty has increased from 4.2 per cent in 2008 to 8 per cent.
“We all know about the disgraceful number of children living in temporary accommodation, but what is not as well known is that the number of children now in consistent poverty has grown to 11.2 per cent. This equates to one in nine children. In 2008 the rate was 6.3 per cent. Furthermore, the number of children experiencing deprivation has almost trebled since Fine Gael/Labour took office. The Deprivation rate is 36.1 per cent up from 13.5 per cent in 2008,” he concluded.
