Labour borrows Marshall’s plan to blitz poverty

LABOUR has promised to launch a “war on poverty” if returned to office, which would involve spending at least €3.5 billion on the most disadvantaged areas in the country.

Launching the plan yesterday, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said “nothing less than a ‘Marshall Plan’ for disadvantaged people, areas, communities and neighbourhoods” was required.

He was referring to the economic aid plan masterminded by the then US secretary of state George C Marshall to rebuild Europe after World War II.

Labour would replace the existing RAPID (Revitalising Areas by Planning Investment and Development) programme, which the party believes is ineffective, with a system called ‘A Fair Deal for Communities’, Mr Rabbitte said.

It would target the same chronically disadvantaged areas, but increase the resources available and channel them more effectively.

Labour would ring-fence at least 5% of the next National Development Plan — or €3.5bn — to the programme, Mr Rabbitte said.

Unlike recent policy documents, the plan was not a joint one with Fine Gael, the party with which Labour looked to build an alternative government.

Mr Rabbitte said he had no commitment from Fine Gael for the spending proposals contained in the plan, entitled ‘A Fair Deal: Fighting Poverty and Exclusion’.

However, he stressed that the plan would be at the very heart of Labour’s election manifesto. Tackling inequality was a “core principle” for the party, he said.

Among other things, the plan envisages tackling early school-leaving, with Labour offering a “social guarantee” that all 16-18-year-olds who drop out will be offered “a meaningful opportunity to learn or develop skills”.

The party would also extend childhood development programmes and provide one year’s free pre-school education for all three-year-olds in disadvantaged areas.

Labour also pledged to “progressively achieve” paid parental leave of up to one year as well as a legal right to take up to a three-year career break.

Other priorities under the plan would be labour market reform and tackling problems caused by immigration.

He said RAPID, under Éamon Ó Cuív, had proved “an empty shell”.

Labour will also propose to abolish the means test for welfare payments in a forthcoming policy document, the social affairs spokesman Willie Penrose indicated.