Equality must be placed at the heart of government policy as we attempt to repair the economy, the director of an independent think-tank said today.
Director of Tasc Paula Clancy said the ideological argument that economic growth and economic equality were incompatible needed to be challenged.
She was speaking at the Desmond Greaves summer school in Dublin.
“The idea that there is a trade-off between the two is based on the argument that the higher levels of taxation and public spending required to promote economic equality will reduce investment and harm enterprise,” Ms Clancy said.
She said there was evidence that spending could promote economic growth, depending on where it was directed.
“For example, expenditure on education is positively related to economic growth in the long term.
“We need only look to the Nordic countries, which have historically enjoyed high levels of productivity and economic growth, combined with high levels of public expenditure, paid for by high levels of taxation.”
Ms Clancy said it was “no coincidence” that those countries had weathered the recession better than Ireland.
“In fact, the high-tax and high-benefit welfare systems in Sweden, Denmark and Norway have acted as economic stabilisers – ensuring that job losses do not automatically result in severely plummeting demand.”
Ms Clancy said more than eight out of 10 people in Tasc’s recent equality survey were concerned about economic inequality and they wanted the State “to take an active role in reducing it”.
“The challenge now facing is to ensure that the public’s wishes become public policy.”
Tasc is dedicated to combating inequality in Ireland.
The 22nd Desmond Greaves summer school is taking place at the Pearse Centre in Dublin this weekend.
Greaves was a historian and a Marxist who wrote extensively on Irish labour history. He wrote books on James Connolly, Liam Mellows, and the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union.
The school is organised each year to mark his contribution to Irish history writing and politics and to continue his work.