A chara, -Elderly people living in senior citizen complexes have contacted me to replay their disgust at the recent rise in rent for their accommodation. The £2-a-week increase wipes out the much hyped rise in the old age pension announced on the last Budget. This increase, coupled with the growing inflation in food prices, means that many of our senior citizens, who have built up this country, will end their day sin poverty.
The UN Development Programme's league table impartially measures the extent of human poverty (The Irish Times, July 10th). For the fourth year in succession, Ireland languishes near the bottom of the table and 15.3 per cent of the State's citizens are living in poverty. The worrying statistics also show that 23 per cent of the population suffer form functional illiteracy and cannot perform basic tasks such as reading a bus time table.
The publication of this table reinforces what Sinn Fein has being saying for some time. The Government's current strategy is isolating a huge section of Irish society. Children are living in poverty while Bertie Ahern seems more concerned with his £1 billion "Bertie Bowl" white elephant.
Ireland has the highest economic growth rate in the Western world, yet we rank 16th of 17 in terms of the distribution of our wealth. The Government must change its approach of giving tax cuts to the rich rather than investing in adequate development programmes that will benefit the entire country.
Another worrying aspect in this report indicates that women in Ireland earn up to 2.5 times less than men, the worst imbalance for any Western country . This, too demands immediate Government action. -Is mise,
Cllr Dessie Ellis, Dunsink Road, Dublin 11.