Poorest not as poor, but rich a lot richer

That Ireland has been found to have the second-highest level of poverty in the industrialised world, for the second year in a row, is "not a matter of any great embarrassment", according to Dermot Ahern, Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs.

The findings of this week's Human Development Report from the United Nations - which ranks Ireland's record of 15.3 per cent of the population living in what it calls "human poverty" at 16th out of 17 Western countries - should be viewed against the background of more positive achievements, the Minister told The Irish Times.

He points to his own Department's 199899 annual report on the National Anti-Poverty Strategy which proudly calls upon data from the Economic and Social Research Institute and the Central Statistics Office.

These show that since 1997 the number of people in consistent poverty* has fallen from between 9 and 15 per cent to between 7 and 10 per cent; that unemployment has fallen from 11.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent; that long-term unemployment has fallen from 6 per cent to 3.1 per cent; and that income adequacy targets, as defined by the Commission on Social Welfare, have been "achieved in full".

"That's not bad for a country that's only on its feet about five years," he says. He deplores the way the media focused this week on the finding that Ireland had fallen in the main ranking of social progress.

However, of the 174 states surveyed in the Human Development Index, Ireland now ranks 20th, down from 17th last year, an indication of inequalities in the distribution of wealth. And while Mr Ahern is not embarrassed by such findings, Hugh Frazer, the director of the Combat Poverty Agency, is not shocked. "It is much the same as last year's report," he says.

While all agencies which deal daily with the poor agree the rising economic tide has lifted all boats, some are enjoying greater buoyancy than others. The poorest may not be as poor, but the rich are a lot richer.

So, although the average disposable income grew by 22 per cent between 1994 and 1997 (the latest available figures), an ESRI report published in June finds "the percentage of persons or households below relative income poverty lines was generally higher".

Those households most at risk of suffering consistent poverty remain ones headed by a person who is unemployed or over 65 years of age.

For children, however, the risk of relative income poverty fell, though households containing children comprise 55 per cent of all those below the 50 per cent of the average-disposable-income line.

The experience of poverty remains largely hidden, says Liam O'Dwyer of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. "The affluent classes can exist without ever coming into contact with poverty. They drive from affluent area to affluent area, never witnessing deprivation, never even using public transport."

Harry Sheils, administrator of Alone, a Dublin-based charity for the elderly, agrees. "The squalor and poverty of many elderly people is still there," he says. "Many have no one to talk to about their situation and live with their lot in silence. We look after about 500 to 600 elderly people."

That rural poverty is so dispersed exacerbates the extent to which it, too, is "hidden", says Gerry Gunning of the IFA's rural development section. "Studies have shown it to be endemic." A study carried out last year by UCD found there were 14,000 farmers taking home an income of less than the rate of Unemployment Assistance.

One of the most stark failures highlighted by the UN report, says the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, is the Government's record on tackling adult illiteracy.

While it finds 23 per cent of the population to be functionally illiterate in that they have difficulty reading a bill or instructions on a medicine bottle, INOU's general secretary, Mike Allen, discerns "no evidence of any inroads by government into that figure". An OECD report some years ago found Ireland's levels of adult illiteracy second only to Poland's, of the states it examined. The Department of Education and Science, however, may argue that in December 1998 it targeted £3.2 million at the problem to be spent over two years.

Indeed, the aforementioned 1998-99 anti-poverty strategy report trumpets: "As a result of the various social inclusion measures announced in the three relevant budgets, additional spending of some £950 million. . . will have taken place over the period [of Partnership 2000]."

* A state of consistent poverty is said to exist when a person's disposable income is below 50 to 60 per cent of the average disposable in- come and they are deprived of an indicator such as a roast once a week, strong shoes or a warm coat