Government Tokenism to Social Inclusion Criticised

27 Nov 2003

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed strongly condemns the government for only paying lip service to social inclusion and equality. While it espouses targets in the NAPS and in Sustaining Progress it does something completely different in its actions. The "Savage Sixteen" announced by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs in the Estimates for 2004 is a classic case of this. These will directly and indirectly impact on the marginalised and disadvantaged in Irish society.

“Many are petty changes (e.g. increase in number of contributions for UB entitlement) that will accrue little savings but will have a devastating effect on the people who need to avail of them,” said Mr Eric Conroy, General Secretary INOU. “There is a vindictive nature to them in that they raise the spectre of the "deserving poor" - something we felt Irish society had moved away from.”

The government is actively making choices to spend on the rich and take from the poor. They are giving large scale tax breaks to those sufficiently well off to avail of them (c. €7billion) and taking a miserable €58 million (out of a budget of over €10 billion) from the poor. You are better off in Irish society today if you are a horse than a poor child!

The government has continued this reneging on social inclusion in recent times with the ongoing cuts in Community Employment. The most recent cut of 5,000 which was announced in last years Estimates was a unilateral decision with absolutely no consultation with the social partners. CE provides very good value for money in the provision of essential social services as a byproduct of its role as an active labour market programme. With unemployment rising and with pressure from Fianna Fail backbenchers we call on the government and particularly the Minister for Finance to provide the necessary finance to bring the numbers on CE back to 25,000. Budget 2004 must give credibility to the social partnership process by targeting and prioritising those most in need.