Government under fire over action plan to tackle poverty
“This plan is a disgrace,” Brian Carty, policy officer with European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland said. “The Government has once again missed out on the opportunity to tackle poverty and social exclusion. Are they at all serious about ending poverty?”
Launching the plan, Ms Coughlan said it provided a clear roadmap towards the building of a fairer and more inclusive society and was a stage in the process of making a decisive impact on poverty by 2010 and beyond.
Action to improve the lot of Travellers and immigrants is to be given priority, while Ms Coughlan said they were looking at reducing the level of “consistently poor” from the current 5% of the population to 2% by 2007.
Mr Carty accused Taoiseach Bertie Ahern of not living up to his promises; made when he signed the European social inclusion strategy. While some imaginative anti-poverty approaches had been developed, the Government had not put the resources in place to make them work.
“Ireland has one of the highest levels of poverty in the EU, yet is the fourth richest country in the world. We’re seeing a widening of the gap between poor and rich,” said Mr Carty.
He added that 70 submissions had been made to the new Office of Social Inclusion and hundreds of people had participated in consultative meetings around the country, generating a range of positive and creative ideas, but all this seemed to have been ignored.
Ms Coughlan said initiatives to tackle child poverty would be given priority for policy development over the next two years. Other priority objectives identified by the plan would:
l Maintain and improve participation in employment and quality of jobs.
l Increase social welfare payments in real terms and improve access to and standards in the key public services.
lProvide focused, tailored supports for those in vulnerable situations.
The newly established Office for Social Inclusion in the minister’s own department would monitor implementation of the plan and the further development of the process.
Acknowledging some criticisms, Ms Coughlan said there may have been disappointment the plan had not gone further in meeting concerns, “but at a minimum we have striven to ensure that at least such concerns are on the record to be taken into account in future policy development”.
Combat Poverty Agency director Helen Johnston, who welcomed the plan, said it was vital the proposals were implemented and resources were prioritised to achieve this.
