THE TREND where resources are appropriated from the poorer classes and transferred to the better off must be reversed, according to the director of Social Justice Ireland.
Addressing 400 delegates from 42 countries at a conference in Brussels yesterday, Fr Seán Healy argued that the economic model that has been followed for several decades across the world is broken and must be replaced.
He said the series of banking, economic and social crises we face today are interlinked and have caused yet more crises, including unemployment, job insecurity and over-indebtedness of individuals and the State.
The conference was being held to mark the launch for public comment of a draft Charter for Shared Social Responsibility, which is being produced by the Council of Europe in conjunction with the European Commission. Fr Healy is a member of the six-person core advisory group that has prepared this draft charter over the past 2½ years.
Fr Healy told the conference that “all sectors of society, including government, business, trade unions and the community and voluntary sector, must share social responsibility if the huge problems facing society are to be addressed effectively in a fair and equitable manner”.