Darren J. Prior
Social Justice Ireland released their latest report “Social Justice Matters 2023” on Monday 8th May. In it Social Justice Ireland call for “a new Social Contract” in Ireland and speaking to Dublin People, Michelle Murphy, Research and Policy Analyst with SJI also gave an update on the news announced in March that Fr. Seán Healy and Sr. Brigid Reynolds will retire from SJI at the end of the year.
“We’re calling for a new Social Contract because we think the benefits of Ireland’s growing economy should be harnessed to ensure a fairer distribution of life’s necessities. And by that I mean so that people have affordable accommodation; that they can access affordable housing; that they can access healthcare when they need; they can get their GP appointment; access to education for all children regardless of their abilities or needs. And sustainability because we have a situation at the moment where our headline economic figures are going really well. We have record levels of growth since the pandemic. We’re at full employment more or less. But at the same time we have nearly 670,000 people living in poverty. We have a housing crisis. A homelessness crisis. So there is a big disconnect between economic progress and actually peoples everyday lives”.
According to Michelle there is still huge inequality in Ireland.
“There is still. And we are into the second year of rising costs, high inflation, a cost of living crisis and those levels of inequality are really having an impact.”
“I think a lot of the public have a greater grasp or understanding of it than maybe some of our politicians. And I think maybe that feeds into the recent debate when the President made his speech a couple of weeks ago where he criticised the focus of traditional economic theory focussing on growth and continual growth and things like GDP. And he was pointing out that you know if we’re going to meet our climate targets then we need to get away from our focus on growth and I think he was also pointing out the reality for many people. We have a country that on the one hand has GDP growth. We have €10 billion additional Euro that Government did not think it would have before the budget to spend yet it’s a country people can’t afford to live in. Young people can’t find a home. It’s impossible to find a house to rent. We have people in their 70’s facing homelessness. We have nearly 188,000 children living in poverty. I think a lot of people from every walk of life interact with inequality on a daily basis.
“We should be using the resources that we have to actually deliver a better standard of living for everyone. We know what lifts people out of poverty – it’s increasing their income. Social welfare rates are a key element of that.
“The Government can’t say that they don’t have the money. They do.
We have to also look at the longer term how we fund our public services going forward. Our population has grown. And it is also ageing. So we are going to need more money for pensions. There is going to be more money required for the healthcare sector. And we have very challenging climate targets to reach by 2030 and there is only 7 years for us to reach those targets.”
Speaking about the retirement of SJI cofounders - Director, Fr. Seán Healy and Company Secretary Sr. Brigid Reynolds - at the end of the year Michelle said:
“They have made an immense contribution to social justice not just in Ireland but in Africa as well for more than half a century but I think what Seán and Brigid have really done in their work here is they have brought social justice issues into the mainstream. We will be having an event in early 2024 to honour the legacy of Seán and Brigid”.
(Unedited version).
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