700,000 people living in poverty, report says

SOME 706,000 people, including 200,000 children, are living in poverty in Ireland which is an increase of 92,000 in two years, according to a new report.

The Shaping Ireland’s Future report by Social Justice Ireland (SJI) said the Government needed to acknowledge Ireland’s poverty problem and called for an over-haul of the social welfare system, saying it is not “fit for purpose”.

It revealed the poorest 10 per cent of households have an average disposable income of €210 a week, compared to an average of €2,276 a week for the richest 10 per cent.

It recommended policymakers introduce a basic income system to replace social welfare and income tax credits.

“By making tax credits refundable, almost 113,300 low-income individuals would receive a refund and would see their disposable income increase as a result of the proposal.

“In practice, a basic income recognises the right of every person to a share of the resources of society,” the report added.

It noted the Government’s insistence on keeping Ireland’s total tax-take among the lowest in the European Union has placed the exchequer in a “very precarious position and put massive pressure on public services and infrastructure”.

SJI director Fr Seán Healy called for an increase of total tax-take from just under 30 per cent of gross domestic product to 34.9 per cent by broadening the tax base. He said the country could do so and still remain a low-tax economy.

He recommended the elimination of tax breaks to help boost fairness in the system as the “major beneficiaries of most tax breaks are those on the highest incomes”.

With some 120,000 people who live in poverty having jobs, the report said being employed is not a guarantee of living in a poverty-free household.

“The Government needs to adopt a strategy of making large scale job-creation interventions into the labour market,” Fr Healy said, to help combat the problem of 30 per cent youth and 14 per cent total unemployment.

Finally, the report said emigration of Irish nationals had tripled since 2008 with 40,200, particularly young people, leaving the country in the past 12 months.

“The austerity programme is contributing to Ireland’s loss of young people, the implications of which are stark as this loss will pose significant problems for economic recovery. The emigration ‘brain drain’, which in some quarters is being heralded perversely as a ‘safety valve’, is in fact a serious problem for Ireland and may well lead to a skills deficit in the long term,” Fr Healy added.