Sir, – Una Mullally states that we need "a welfare system that supports people instead of penalising them" ("Let's preserve good things that come out of a bad time", Opinion & Analysis, April 20th).
It would be useful if your columnist would use facts and comparative data instead of populist far-left rhetoric to explain her position on matters of government, economic policy and social policy.
Likewise for Kevin Callinan and Joe Cunningham ("Social solidarity must be central to post-emergency", Opinion & Analysis, April 20th), who assert that we need a "flatter wealth distribution" and "adequate taxation".
The ESRI’s Dr Barra Roantree, in the 130th Barrington Lecture, on January 23rd, 2020, provided a full analysis to show that Ireland’s taxation and welfare system does more than any other EU country’s to reduce inequality. Dr Roantree provides full comparative analysis to show that the Irish taxation system is particularly progressive. There is ample analysis available from the ESRI to show that Ireland has the most redistributive taxation and welfare system in the EU.
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Facts really do matter. – Yours, etc,
MARK MOHAN,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – The reduction of income and wealth inequality is a concern that has occupied many economists but is yet without an adequate solution.
Walter Scheidel’s 2017 book The Great Leveler presents the dismal idea that inequality only reduces substantially under four stark levelling conditions: mass warfare, state failure, transformative revolution, and lethal pandemic.
Powerful levelling of income and wealth arises from powerful shocks.
The conflict we feel in Scheidel’s analysis is that these disruptive events are thankfully rare but that unfortunately entails meaningful reductions in inequality are also rare.
We now find ourselves mired in one of these infrequent events sooner than Scheidel or any one of us anticipated.
Our instinct is to reset and do everything we can to return to how we were before the Covid-19 pandemic .
We should, however, use this exceptional opportunity to reset in a way that adequately rewards the people who work in roles that we previously took for granted but whose jobs we now understand as being fundamentally important.
Recognising the nurses and nursing home staff would be an encouraging start. – Yours, etc,
DAVID
KELLEHER,
Dublin 9.