Bishops condemn cutting minimum wage with 6-figure salaries elsewhere

THE Catholic Bishops have called into question the Government’s decision to cut the minimum wage when senior executives at semi-state companies are still earning six-figure salaries.

The bishops said the common good is damaged by economic policies that target the most vulnerable in society.

They also warned that if the breakdown of trust in institutions such as the Church and the Government is allowed to fester, it could “engender a cultural climate in which the spectre of social fragmentation and even violence cannot be ruled out”.

The warning came at the launch of From Crisis to Hope: Working to achieve the Common Good, a document written by the Council for Justice and Peace, an arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The document calls for the protection of the poorest and most vulnerable as a “core element of any measures aimed at addressing the current political, social and economic crises”.

The launch was held at the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin’s Bow Street, which was founded in the 1960s to help the homeless and now provides more than 400 meals per day to people in need of assistance.

Speaking at the launch, one of the document’s authors, Fr Eoin Cassidy, said this was a time of political change in Ireland against the background of “justifiable anger and a breakdown of trust in key societal institutions”.

From Crisis to Hope argues the need to prioritise the common good, which was the “only real alternative set of values” to the “survival of the fittest ethos that shapes our consumerist-capitalist culture today.”

The common good would be served only through a major effort to “restore trust in our institutional framework”.

This would be done through “attention to the place of ethics in governance” and “acknowledging that the common good is damaged by economic policies that target the most vulnerable in our society”.

In that regard, Fr Cassidy said, there were “questions to be asked” regarding the Government’s reduction in the minimum wage, which amounts to a cut of €40 per week for those affected.

Fr Cassidy said an incomes policy based on the principle of solidarity would find it “difficult to countenance” the situation whereby large six-figure salaries are be paid to semi-state senior executives while the minimum wage is slashed.

Bishop Raymond Field, chair of the Council for Justice and Peace, said poverty and social exclusion represented “gross violations” of human dignity.

He said the Christian obligation to defend human dignity meant:

* Protecting human life, from the moment of conception to its natural end;

* Protecting children from poverty;

* Ensuring that young people are not forced to leave their home country as a result of a lack of opportunities;

* Strengthening and protecting family life;

* Ensuring that every person can access the healthcare they require on the basis of need;

* Providing support and assistance to people with disabilities; and

* Enabling older people to live dignified and independent lives.

Bishop John Kirby called for the overseas aid budget, which has been cut on three occasions in recent years, to be protected.

“The saving is a relatively small one for us, but it represents a huge reduction for people in the developing world,” he said.

* www.catholicbishops.ie.