Poverty will continue without Government reforms, says SVP

THE injustice of poverty will continue for another quarter of a century unless Government policies are radically reformed, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) warned yesterday.

Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, SVP head of social justice and policy John-Mark McCafferty said that, despite becoming richer in the past decade, Irish society has also become more unequal.

"Of children in the 0-14 age group, 148,000 are in consistent poverty. This means they are in a low-income family and also experience deprivation of basic items on a regular basis," he said.