Government ministers have been defending their record following the publication of a UN report which found that Ireland has the second-highest levels of poverty in the industrialised world.
The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, both pointed out yesterday that unemployment has fallen sharply since the data contained in the Human Development Report 1998 were gathered. However, Democratic Left accused the Government of failing to show "real commitment" to tackling poverty.
Speaking at the Dublin launch of the report, Ms O'Donnell insisted the Government had not been "complacent" with recent economic success and had recognised that unemployment was the biggest cause of poverty. Its aim was to reduce unemployment from 9 to 7 per cent over the coming 18 months, and to 5 per cent by 2002.
Mr Ahern said the report, which is compiled by the UN Development Programme, confirmed what the Government had known "for some time" from its own national surveys. The National Anti-Poverty Strategy had been developed in response to this issue. "In our action programme, we undertook to build a more inclusive society and since the Government came into office just over one year ago, there has been significant progress towards this objective," he said.
The report ranked Ireland 17th in the world for quality of life, but found wide disparities of wealth within the State. Irish women were more disadvantaged economically relative to men than in any other industrialised state, and illiteracy was higher than in 16 other industrialised countries. On 1995 data, Irish long-term unemployment was second-worst.
Addressing the main theme of the report - consumption - Ms O'Donnell said current patterns of consumption were "not a thing to be proud of". The richest 20 per cent of the world's population consumed 58 per cent of energy. A child born in Dublin today would consume and waste more in a lifetime than 50 children in developing countries.
The Minister said it was "morally curious" that aid transfers from developed to developing countries were at their lowest level. Ireland would continue to go against this trend, she said, restating the Government's commitment to increase aid from the current level of 0.32 per cent to 0.45 per cent of gross national product by 2002.
Democratic Left said the UN figures on poverty in Ireland should bring "a cold dose of realism to all the hype about the Celtic Tiger". Mr Eamon Gilmore said that the report confirmed what many people already knew, that substantial sections of the population were not benefiting from the unprecedented economic growth of recent years and that "amongst a sea of plenty there are islands of deprivation that are falling further and further behind."
He accused the Government of failing to show any real commitment to the Anti-Poverty Strategy established by the previous administration.
